


I Make my own Luck

by somethingofatrainwreck



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Epilogue, F/M, Halloween, Mild Sexual Content, Poker Nights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-03-14 21:35:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3426398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somethingofatrainwreck/pseuds/somethingofatrainwreck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poker Night was simple enough. Show up at Clarke's every Thursday night. BYOB (no cans, always bottles), turn your phones off, don't get in the middle when Mom and Dad start to bicker, never mention Mt. Weather, and for the love of God don't bring any randos...It was simple. It really was. The thing about rules though? People can't help but break them.</p><p>aka five times someone ruined Poker Night and the one time all bets were off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Player's Manual

_An Intro:_

It was a simple concept.

Every other Thursday Clarke Griffin would cover her vintage white oak dining table with a beer stained poker table top.

They had chosen her apartment because it was equidistant from all of their places (although she had yet to see a map to prove as much). It was the only college tradition they held onto, their way to battle back against the forces of the universe (specifically the concept of aging) that seemed to be pulling them all in separate directions.

**There were 5 players:**

-Clarke Griffin, an accomplished and well respected Doctor who lacks a love life and a functional relationship with her mother.

\- Jasper Jordan a biochemist who never has the time to really explain his job but is secure enough in his maturity to wear those ridiculous googles on his head almost all of the time.

-Monty Green, who has a well-paying job at a pharmaceutical company but was most proud of the still he and Jasper installed in their bathtub and his own personal “garden”. 

-Nathan Miller, a good natured cop who insisted on wearing a knitted beanie even when it wasn’t cold out (unless he was on duty of course, that was his one grievance with the uniform)

-Bellamy Blake, newly hired professor in the Ark’s history department, who spends most of his time continuing to try and raise his fully grown 23 year old little sister. 

There were only a few things to remember. Most importantly, the dealer (different on any given night) gets two choices: the game and the liquor (although they did devise a system to prevent Monty from bringing his homebrew every week, there’s an alphabetical pattern: a bottle of Absolute one week, Bacardi the next etc, etc.) 

Other than that, there were five simple rules:

1\. BYOB Always bottles, never cans.  
2\. No phones unless someone is in mortal danger.  
3\. Don’t get involved in a Mom and Dad argument ( a cruel euphemism for Clarke and Bellamy’s occasional disagreements)  
4\. Never speak of Mt Weather  
5\. No inviting randoms. 

It was so simple. On paper (and it was on paper, and laminated, Jasper had seen to that) it was easier than just about anything else in their lives. The thing about rules though, as everyone knows, is that people are always going to break them (in other words: Jasper wasted that $3 on the laminator at Staples because nothing is sacred anymore.)


	2. Texas Hold Em & Bulldog Gin

_i. Texas Hold ‘Em, Bulldog Gin_

“So Monty and I have some good news,” Jasper rasps after throwing back his second shot of the night (after suffering his second pathetic loss of the night). “We’re thinking about buying a boat.”

Clarke groans and takes a mental inventory of who needs a beer before standing up and disappearing into her kitchen. She hears Miller huff, but she’s not sure if it’s because of the ridiculous notion of their friends owning a boat or if he disapproves of the way Bellamy is shuffling the cards (again).

“What the fuck are you two going to do with a boat?” She can hear the concentration in Bellamy’s voice, God she hopes he doesn’t accidentally send cards all over the floor.

“You don’t even have cars,” Miller adds, “Why don’t you get yourselves a nice little nerd van or something?”

“What constitutes as a nerd van?” Clarke asks with a laugh as she takes her seat and replaces some of the empty bottles.

“Like the mystery machine?” Monty asks. “Because we’ve talked about it before and honestly it would be such a bitch to parallel park.”

“I’ll ask again,” Bellamy says, “What the fuck are you two going to do with a boat?”

“We can have poker night on the boat," Jasper suggests.

Clarke shakes her head. “Please don’t waste your money on a boat….at least not until your old and married and you need to buy something behind your wife’s back just to make you feel young again.”

“Well we need some kind of change in our life,” Jasper exclaims as Bellamy starts to deal. “I’m bored. I’m seriously bored with my own existence. This is the highlight of my week and all I do is lose money.”

“Losing money here is cheaper than buying a boat,” Bellamy says.

Jasper glances at his hand and shakes his head, “I’m not sure about that.”

Miller is about to complain that the cards weren’t shuffled properly. She can tell because he’s anxiously shifting his beanie and Bellamy is staring at him expectantly (God, maybe Jasper was right, this was starting to get boring and predictable). Before the familiar argument can begin there’s a knock on Clarke’s door. She looks around with her eyebrows raised. “Did someone order food?”

“No, but that’s not a bad idea,” Monty mumbles.

Whoever it is knocks again, this time a little louder. 

“You gonna answer that Princess or are you waiting for the butler to get it?” Bellamy asks.

She shoots a glare at him and stalks to the door. When she finally throws it open, she’s half expecting it to be Octavia, coming to scream at Bellamy (or ask him for money), what she isn’t expecting is to see the broad shoulders and friendly smile of her oldest friend.

“Wells!” she yells and launches herself at him. He’s still quick on his feet, managing to catch her around the waist and pull her into a hug. “I didn’t know you were in town! Why didn’t you call!”

“I thought I’d surprise you.” he laughs and she pulls away to smile at him.

“Well you did, you definitely did!"

Wells had been her best friend growing up, but after high school they’d gone to separate parts of the country. He was working for Doctors without Borders now, last she’d heard somewhere in South Africa. She’s about to demand that he tell her everything that he hasn’t already covered in their few Facebook messages, when she hears a throat clearing behind her back. 

Wells looks over her shoulder with raised eyebrows. “Sorry,” he says “I didn’t realize you had company. I can come back tomorrow or….”

“No,” she says. Jasper’s rules be damned “No, it’s just poker night. You should come in and join us. I want to introduce you to the guys anyway.” Wells looks apprehensive, but he follows her inside and closes the door behind him.

“Guys!” she says, pointedly ignoring the subtle glares they’re shooting her way “This is Wells Jaha, we grew up together. Wells, this is Monty, Jasper, Nathan, and Bellamy.”

They’re polite enough, each one reaching forward and shaking his hand when he extends it.

“They’re friends from Ark U.” she explains “This is sort of a continuation of a tradition we had back in school.”

Wells grins at her, and she loses her train of thought for a minute when she realizes how much older he looks. It must have been six years since she’s seen him last. 

“Clarke, hello? Clarke!” her eyes snap up and she sees Jasper waving dramatically. “Are we playing or what?”

“Oh, yeah. Wells here- pull up this chair- we’ll deal you in. Do you want a beer or something?”

“Oh, no thank you. I don’t drink," he explains.

“You play poker though right?” Bellamy asks with raised eyebrows. 

“It’s been a while, but I could hold my own once upon a time.”

“Alright then, wallet out.”

Clarke talks twice as fast as she normally does, distracting herself from the game, trying to ask about as many things as she can think of. _What is it like in South Africa? How is your father? Are you moving back to States soon?_

“Hey Oprah, we’re trying to play a game here,” Bellamy snaps, “maybe save the interview for another time?”

Clarke glares across the table at him, one of those powerful hair-raising ones that has Wells shifting uncomfortably in his seat. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Jasper explains “They like to talk shit, it was worse in college.”

“All that pent up sexual tension.” Monty adds with a laugh.

“Why don’t you two go make- out for a few, clear the air, here- I’ll play your hand.” Clarke slaps Miller’s hand away and shakes her head.

“What have I told you about touching my cards.”

“Oh my God,” Wells says with a snap of his fingers “you’re that guy.” He’s pointed at Bellamy, who looks like he’s trying to decide whether or not he’s being insulted….actually Clarke is pretty confused too.

“Wells what are you….”

“When I first got to Africa , we Skyped all the time and you kept telling me about this guy you were always fighting with. The one you hooked up with, and you were so pissed because he blew you off the next day…..”

Clarke’s eyes widen just as Bellamy slams his hands down on the table “Seriously Clarke?” he demands.

“Oh new guy,” Jasper groans “nooooooo.”

Clarke doesn’t seem all that affected. She takes a long drink of her beer and pulls at the braid resting on her shoulder. “It was a long time ago," she says.

“I did NOT blow you off.”

“We’ve moved past all that, right Bellamy?”

He looks at her like she’s crazy and then shakes his head “No, no because I’m sick and tired of that goddamn lie.”

“It was one night, five years ago. Does it really matter?”

“Also, just a friendly little reminder that we all agreed not to ever discuss that night," Jasper says ,“It’s rule number four remember?”

“I didn’t mean to..” Wells starts to apologize but Clarke holds her hand up to silence him.

“What happened, happened, it’s not something we need to argue about now.”

“Yeah, except that what you say happened didn’t happen.”

“Yes it did.”

“No, it didn’t.”

“I really did.”

“It really didn’t”

“Why would I make it up?” she laughs “Why would I lie about being rejected? Come on Bellamy, just be a man and admit it….”

He laughs back, but it’s more exasperated and angry than anything. “I’m not admitting anything because it’s not true. I never rejected you, that’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You know, this argument is just about the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.” Miller interrupts. “Can we just fast forward this part?”

“Fine.” Bellamy snaps “get the box.”

“Loser is a liar?” Clarke asks as she extends her hand.

Bellamy shakes it with a smirk “Deal.”

Wells looks on in mild astonishment as his childhood friend, the perfect and punctual Clarke Griffin, settles down across from Bellamy with a beer in her hand, a Battleship game-board between them. He vaguely remembers the rules, but it all happens too fast for him to keep up. It seems so ritualistic, like this is seriously how they settle their arguments. Judging by the uninterested stares of the other guys, he’s pretty sure it might be.

Finally, after about ten minutes of watching them (Jasper had taken the time to question whether Wells had ever been on a boat) Bellamy shoots straight up in his chair and throws his hands in the air. “Go ahead, say it Princess.”

Clarke looks murderous “You sunk my battleship," she mumbles through tight lips.

Bellamy grins triumphantly “Let the record show that I never blew her off, that was a filthy lie and now she has a ghost ship to prove it.”

For the first time that night, the atmosphere loses that playful undertone. Clarke is simply staring at Bellamy with her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared. 

“You know what Wells,” she finally says “We should go get a drink. I think I’m done playing poker for the night.”

The smile slips from Bellamy’s face, Clarke stands up, grabs her purse and Wells's hand, and starts to pull him to the door.

“Come on Clarke,” Bellamy says “don’t be like that.”

“Lock up when you leave," he bites back.

Just before the door slams Wells hears Jasper yell “Every fucking time! This is why we have rules people!”

Wells can barely keep up as she drags them to a bar around the corner from her building.

“Hey, Clarke I’m sorry. I never meant to bring all that up, you guys just seemed like friends so I thought….”

“No Wells, it’s fine. We are friends. We should be able to have conversations like adults, but he’s just so…That was a horrible night and I don’t like to relive it.”

“I shouldn’t have said anything…”

“It’s really okay. I mean this is better, I haven’t seen you in years. Let’s just sit here and get a drink.”

It takes four beers and six ignored calls before Bellamy finally shows up. Wells looks away when he apologizes, he gets the impression that it’s not something Bellamy does often. Eventually Clarke is smiling again, she invites Bellamy to sit and have a drink with them but he just waves her off.

“I have to go apologize to Jasper.” He explains “he says we ruined the last good thing he had in his life.”

Wells laughs, but makes a mental note to never show up at Clarke’s apartment without calling ahead again.


	3. Omaha & Devil's Cut

_ii. Omaha, Devil’s Cut_

 

She almost slips on the carpet in the hallway after she checks herself in the mirror for the fifth time.

She thought she’d be a little less anxious when the guys showed up, that the familiarity of their rantings and beer stench would lure her into a false sense of security. It’s not working. All she can think of now is the disappointed look on Finn’s face when he sees the absolute idiots she considers the most important people in her life.

“Clarke,” Bellamy yells from the kitchen “Is this a cheese tray? Seriously this isn’t book club…”

He storms into the hallway just as she’s walking through the door way. She loses her balance for a second, nearly knocking his beer from his hand as she grabs onto his arm to stay upright.

“Sorry,” she says “for running into you, not for the cheese. This is my apartment. If I want to eat something other than Cool Ranch Doritos and beer nuts then I’m going to do it.”

Bellamy looks her up and down, his smirk slides into place and she tries to pretend that it doesn’t make her blush (you know, as per usual). “Awe you dressed up for us,” he says “How cute.” She knows there’s a compliment somewhere in there, buried under the mocking and eyebrow wagging, so she smiles at him. 

“This isn’t for you Blake. You guys are my yoga pants and sweatshirt crowd.”

He nods and tips his beer “I’ll drink to yoga pants.”

He’s a pig really, and she should tell him so, but she realizes that she‘s forgotten about being nervous. Something about having Bellamy around has always made her feel pretty safe (even the times she wants to punch him in the nose) it must be the big brother thing. Bellamy’s hand on your shoulder makes you feel like you can do anything (she can’t be the only one who feels it). 

“Really though,” he says as she brushes past him into the kitchen “what’s with the getup?” 

She stops and stares at him “Are you serious?”

“What? Is it someone’s birthday or something?”

“No! God Bellamy, you seriously forgot?”

“Forgot what?!”

She shakes her head and storms into the dining room, where Monty, Jasper, and Miller are doing a shot _“in memory of dubstep”._

“Oh hey Doc,” Jasper says when he sees her “Whoa, looking good, what’s the occasion?”

“Yeah, I didn’t get the memo about the dress code.” Miller adds “I thought we were doing the usual smart-casual.”

“A beanie isn’t smart casual.” Monty mumbles as he starts to shuffle the cards. 

Clarke stares at them in amazement. She’d told them about this last time. She’d sent a group text on Wednesday reminding them, and they ALL responded to it.

“You have got to be kidding me!” she says “You don’t remember the conversation we had about tonight? Finn is coming. You know, the guy I’ve been dating that you four insisted you needed to meet.”

“I never insisted anything,” Bellamy says as he takes a seat “I just thought it was weird that you’ve been dating for three months and we’d never met him.”

“Well, you’re going to meet him, and by the way I really appreciate the fact that you guys listen to me.”

“Oh come on Clarke,” Jasper whines “we listen. I just didn’t think you were serious.”

“Why wouldn’t I be serious?”

“Because it’s against the rules! You can’t just invite people to poker night. You don’t see us inviting our girlfriends.”

“Although to be fair, we’d actually need to have girlfriends for that to apply.” Monty adds with a frown.

“Look, this is important to me.” Clarke explains “I want him to meet you and I don’t see why it’s such a big deal.”

“Because every time someone breaks the rules the night is ruined.”

“That is not true!”

“If any of us invited someone, you’d be pissed.” Miller points out.

“I would not!”

“Okay good,” Bellamy says, pulling his phone from his pocket “Murphy is in town. I’ll just tell him to stop by.”

“What!”

“What’s wrong Princess?”

“You can’t invite Murphy.”

“Why not? You invited Prince Charming.”

“Yeah Clarke, if you get to have a date, no reason Bellamy shouldn’t either.” Bellamy turns to glare at Monty.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You’ve been a dick all night.”

“Crops didn’t do well this month.” Jasper explains “And he still refuses to just buy from someone else…”

“What have I said about talking about illicit drug use in front of me?” Miller asked.

“It’s weed dude, not heroin.” Monty snaps.

“Hey look at that!” Bellamy interrupts with a grin “Murphy says he’ll be here in an hour.”

Clarke’s anxiety is back, this time the smile on Bellamy’s face only seems to make it worse. Finn is the first serious boyfriend she’s had in a while…actually he might be the most serious boyfriend she’s ever had. He worked for a small non-profit organization just outside of the city. He was smart and kind. He’d actually gotten along with her mother when they ran into her at a restaurant last month. He was what Octavia called HEA material (happily ever after…seriously O was still a child at heart). Clarke was happy, for the first time in a long time she felt like she was taking a step in the right direction. She just needed her friends to love him as much as she did. 

“Can you guys just please, please be nice? I really like this guy. He could be….this could be it.”

“Which is why you felt that you had to dress up like your mother just to play cards?” Bellamy asked skeptically “also why there’s wine in your fridge and a cheese tray on your counter? So tell me, does he actually know anything about you or…”

“Hey, I like wine okay, and there’s nothing wrong with cheese just because it isn’t melted and dumped over corn chips. He knows as much about me as any of you. Please stop being a smartass and just have my back here okay?”

Judging by the disapproving look on his face Bellamy has more to argue about, but before he can actually open his mouth the doorbell rings.

“Oh so he’s a doorbell kind of guy?” Jasper says “that’s polite.”

“Please.” Clarke says one more time before walking to the door.

Finn brings her flowers. He smiles his usual calming smile and takes her hand as she leads him into the living room. He shakes everyone’s hand (though she can tell Bellamy really grips it by the brief grimace on his face). He accepts the shot Miller offers him and manages to keep up with their conversation. After a while, even the scowl on Bellamy’s face has fallen into something like a smile. Clarke is so elated that she forgets all about the wine and cheese in her fridge. Finn seems just as happy with beer and pretzels (and God she’s so thankful for that). It’s going well, like really, really well.

And then Murphy shows up.

Finn gets twitchy the moment he enters the room, Clarke just figures it’s because Murphy has one of those faces (Clarke still wasn’t sure how she felt about him but he had saved Bellamy’s life in some hiking incident neither of them ever talked about, so she couldn’t exactly hate him).

“You know Finn,” Murphy says as he sits down between Miller and Bellamy “you look really familiar man. You aren’t in the service are you?”

“Oh, no,” Finn says quickly “no, but I’ve been to some events you know? Maybe you’ve seen me around.”

“Murphy isn’t exactly a black tie kind of guy.” Miller laughs.

“Says the 26 year old in a beanie.”

“It’s pretty fucked up that I’m the one that gets shit when this guy spends half his time wearing goggles.” 

He points to Jasper who finishes taking a drink of his beer quickly so he can gasp in outrage “Hey! This is my thing okay? I've got like a mad scientist kind of thing going on.”

“Yeah, you never know when something is going to explode.” Monty says (he’s in a better mood, thank God).

Clarke is just about to defend Jasper and his goggles (because believe it or not they are a pretty great conversation starter) when Finn pulls his phone out of his pocket and groans.

“Clarke, babe I’m so sorry.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s that possible donor I was telling you about. He caught an early flight. My boss wants me to go meet him for drinks.”

“Oh,” she says with a smile that does a really shitty job of masking her disappointment “Oh, no that’s fine. I understand.”

“Are you sure? I know I haven’t been here long, this was important to you.”

“Finn, really it’s okay. It’s your job, I understand. You go on, I’ll spend the rest of the night taking their money and tomorrow night we can go out and spend it.”

He smiles and kisses her soundly. (Jasper makes a pretty theatrical puking noise) “It was really great to meet you guys.” He says with a wave. 

Clarke walks him to the door and they spend a few more minutes saying goodbye before she returns to the table.

“So?” she says as she sits back down and picks up her hand “What’s the verdict?” She looks at Bellamy (who shoots her a small smile because he loves that she cares what he thinks) but it’s Monty who answers.

“I like him.” He says.

“Yeah, he’s not bad.” Miller adds.

“You should invite him to the bar for the game this weekend.” Jasper suggests.

“That’s where I know him from.” Murphy says with relieved smile “Yeah, he was up at the base when we had that party for the Army-Navy game.”

It’s strange how a one sentence (which taken completely out of context could be utterly insignificant) can make a person’s blood run cold. She tries not to let the dread show on her face, but Bellamy and Miller are both staring at her so she must not be doing a great job.

“You sure about that?” Clarke asks casually.

“Oh yeah, yeah I remember thinking there is no way a guy with hair like that is into football, and I thought the same thing when I walked in and saw him playing poker.”

“What’s wrong Clarke?” Bellamy asks.

“Nothing,” she shakes her head “Are you talking about the Army-Navy game two weeks ago or like…last year or something?”

“Two weeks ago.” He says “yeah, we had a big tailgating party. Hell of a game. He was hanging out with one of the mechanics…..shit what was her name….”

“Raven?” she asks so quickly it surprises herself.

“Yes!” Murphy says “Raven Reyes, total bitch.”

Clarke can feel her legs shaking. Her mind whirling through a thousand scenarios, a million ways that this could be something totally different than what it looks like. She remembers asking him about Raven when she’d seen the pictures in his apartment. He explained that she was his old girlfriend from high school, that they had been like family, but that he’d fallen out of touch with her when they broke up back in college. She had felt weird about it at the time, but she had wanted to trust him so badly that she’s pushed it to the back of her mind. The thing about this is that he told her he was going to a conference in Portland two weekends ago. 

He had lied. He had lied to her and gone all the way to Virginia to see Raven. Then he’d come home to her and they’d…God, she felt sick. Was that why he was so quick to get out of here when Murphy showed up? Why he’d gotten a magical, silent text message telling him he had to go? 

“You know what guys,” she says as she stands up “You keep playing, there’s money in the jar if you want to get a pizza or something. I….I have to go take care of something.”  
She can feel tears of anger (and fucking devastation) in her eyes, but she just wipes them with the back of her hand and goes in search of her purse.

“Come on Clarke, don’t leave!” Jasper yells “We were in the middle of a game!”

She’s fishing her car keys from her purse when Bellamy steps in front of her. “What’s going on?” he demands.

“I’ll be back okay? I just need to go somewhere.”

“Clarke…”

“Bellamy, stop. I need to go, stay here have your game. I’ll be back later.”

When she slams the door she can hear Jasper yell “Would you look at that, another night ruined! Rules! There are Rules!”

By the time she gets back, two hours later, the only thing she can hear from inside of her apartment is the faint sound of ESPN. She doesn’t want to face anyone, not with her eyes red and her hands shaking. So she sits down with her back against the wall and crosses her feet in front of her. The problem is that she doesn’t even really know how to feel. Pissed, humiliated, sick and fucking tired of nothing ever working out.... 

When her door opens she doesn’t even look up from her shoes. She knows its Bellamy. It's always Bellamy.

“You doing alright?”

“Is everyone gone?”

“Yeah." he shuffles on his feet, a nervous habit "Why don’t you come inside.”

“Because I really, just don’t even want to move.”

“Right,” he sighs and sits down next to her “What happened?”

She snorts “You know what happened.”

“Seriously,” he says nudging her foot with his.

“Well, I went to his place, found him hugging the girl he’s been dating since high school, and introduced myself. Then she punched him in the face and walked me to my car. She was nice.”

“So he’s been dating her the whole time he was dating you?”

“Yes.”

“What a fucking asshole.”

“I can’t believe this.”

“You’ll bounce back Princess, you always do.”

“I ruined poker night.”

“I don’t think that’s what’s important right now Clarke.”

“I’m okay. No, really I am.”

“You hungry?”

“No.”

“Because I ordered you a pizza.”

“Green pepper and onion?”

“Yup.”

She groans and stands up “Fine, yes I’m hungry.”

“You want me to leave?”

“No.”

“I should probably text Jasper and apologize.”

Bellamy laughs “Yeah, he was pretty flustered when he left.”

It took three text messages and a promise to buy him Taco Bell every Friday for a month before Jasper finally forgave her.


	4. 7 Card Stud & Tequila Blanco

_iii. 7 Card Stud, Tequila Blanco_

 

“You sure this is going to be okay?”

Clarke shuffles the grocery bags in her arms so she can roll her eyes at her friend. “It’s my apartment Raven. I don’t care what they think. Jasper may have call himself the Keeper of the Table, but I'm in charge.”

“I thought you said there were rules.” 

“I’m sick of being the only girl in this group.”

“I’m just saying, they don’t really know me…..”

“They’ve met you like three times, they like you.”

Clarke knew it was true. Ever since that horrible business with Finn, she and Raven had actually formed a pretty good friendship. Octavia had even let Clarke invite her to the Blake’s annual Christmas party (which had more rules than poker night did). As far as Clarke knew, her friends thought Raven was hilarious. It was time for some new blood at the table anyway.

“I will give you some advice though,” Clarke says as they unpack the ungodly amount of junk food they’d just bought. “First, try to avoid looking directly at Miller he is really good at finding tells, I think it’s a cop thing.”

Raven snorted, “I don’t have any tells.”

“Second, if the conversation starts to drift anywhere near Braveheart, The Fast and Furious Series, or any Stallone movies change the subject…like immediately.”

“Jesus, poker night comes with a manual huh?”

She laughs but Clarke turns and gives her a serious face “It does actually. Jasper had it laminated.”

“Don’t you think you all take this a little too seriously?”

“Third, Bellamy usually adjusts his shoulders when he’s bluffing. You have to watch him carefully because sometimes he’ll do it all dramatically because he knows he has a tell. Don’t fall for it. It’s just a subtle shifting of his shoulders that I don’t even think he can help.”

“Damn Griffin, telling me all of their secrets. I didn’t think you’d be this ruthless.”

“Who we are and who we have to be to win the table are two totally different things.”

Raven laughs again and cracks open a beer. 

“Finally,” Clarke continues “tonight is Miller’s night to deal. It’s a T night , so I hope you’re a fan of tequila.”

“We have a love/hate relationship.”

“Clarke!”

The girls wander into the living room when they hear Jasper throw the door open. He’s panting, his goggles falling off of his head in a way that would probably be hilarious if he wasn’t glaring at them. “The elevator is broken,” he snaps “You live on the thirteenth floor and the elevator is broken! You can’t send a text? _Hey Jasper make sure you wear your good Nikes because you’ll have hike fucking Everest to get to my apartment!_ ”

He stumbles in and collapses on the couch. Clarke and Raven ignore him (because they carried groceries up those stairs not a half hour ago and Dear God why were men such babies?) and take their place at the table. Raven chooses the chair next to Miller’s (as out of his line of sight as she can possibly be) Clarke smiles because she knew the girl would end up taking this as seriously as they do. 

Monty and Miller turn up about five minutes later, just as dramatically as Jasper. Monty rushes into the kitchen and chugs a bottle of water while Miller lays flat on her living room floor, holding up the bottle of tequila and whining until Clarke takes it from him. By the time Bellamy strolls into the apartment, they’ve all managed to make it to their chairs (and stop complaining about the stairs long enough for Miller to choose the night’s game). 

“Clarke,” he says without looking up from his phone “the elevator is broken.”

The second the word elevator leaves his mouth, Monty, Jasper, and Miller all collapse forward onto the table and groan (like they’d been forced to take the stairs again).

“Yeah,” Clarke says “we’ve been efficiently informed.”

“Did you call someone?”

“No. There are fifty other people in this building, I’m sure they’ll get around to fixing it.”

“Give me a few shots and a bungee cord and I’ll go fix it.” Raven jokes.

Jasper takes that as his cue to begin their “opening ceremony” (aka shots all around, and get a new beer people!). Clarke grimaces through her shot and looks up to see Bellamy giving her his best big brother glare. 

“What?” she asks (and she tries really, really hard not to sound annoyed because it’s still early).

“I don’t think it would kill you to call…”

“Bellamy, they know the elevator is broken.”

“How long has it been down?”

“A few days. It’s really not that big of a deal. I haven’t had time to go to the gym this week, those stairs are my only cardio.”

His eyes narrow “So you’ve been coming home from your shift at what- 3 AM- and walking thirteen flights of poorly lit stairs by yourself and you don’t see where that could be a problem?”

Clarke rolls her eyes. Being an over protective worrywart is woven into Bellamy’s personality at its most basic level. She doesn’t mind it for the most part, but she’s not in the mood to listen to his nagging tonight (even if she knows he’s nagging with good intentions).

“I have my trusty pepper spray and a certificate from that self-defense class. I’ll be fine.”

He huffs and looks at his hand “Fine, I’ll take care of it.”

“I don’t need you to micromanage my life Bellamy.”

“It’s called looking out for you Princess. It’s something that I’m going to do even if you stomp your foot and try to ignore me.”

“Are you two really going to ruin Raven’s first poker night during the first hand?” Monty asks with raised eyebrows. 

Bellamy just smiles and Clarke smiles back because she honestly can’t believe that she’s gotten such a good friend out of that idiot. 

“You’re right.” Clarke says “This is Raven’s initiation…”

“Audition.” Jasper corrects her.

“Audition?” Raven questions “I have to audition to be a part of poker night?”

“Hey, we can’t have anyone holding us back.”

“Well good,” Raven says with a smirk that Clarke is starting to learn means trouble “I work best under scrutiny. Who’s ready to lose some money?”

Her audition goes really well at first. Just as Clarke expected, Raven fits in with them perfectly. She’s also cleaning them out. Clarke throws back her third shot (the last one before she and the tequila call it quits for the night for propriety’s sake) and smirks “See, “ she says to her friend “and you were worried that they wouldn’t want you here.”

“Of course we don’t want her here,” Bellamy says with a smile “she’s cleaning fucking house.” 

“I’d say your audition is going pretty well.” Jasper says “Not surprising, I knew you could hang, especially after the beer pong tournament at Christmas.”

Raven nods her head proudly “I am a force to be reckoned with.”

“That was a good night.” Miller agrees. “A _really_ good night for some.”

Clarke notices Bellamy stiffen at Miller’s words, and not in the way he stiffens when he has a good hand. 

“Yeah, seriously,” Jasper says with a slam of his hands (tequila night was always really rough for him) “there are severely biased people at this table. New rule: you cannot assess a potential addition to Poker Night if you’ve seen them naked. Sorry Bellamy.”

She sees him wince, feels Raven shift nervously in the chair next to her. Slowly her confusion starts to settle into understanding. All the blood seems to rush to her face, the rest of her body just feels cold. Raven and Bellamy had a thing….or were a thing? It’s….she’s really uncomfortable with that (never mind the fact that neither of them told her about it), It’s just…..Raven and Bellamy? No, no, no, no that’s not okay, not after Finn….Not that Bellamy and Finn have anything in common. Finn was Finn, Bellamy is her Bellamy. Raven and her Bellamy? No, that’s ridiculous he’s not her’s. He’s….whoever's….maybe he’s Raven’s? God she’s going to be sick.

“Why did it just get weird?” Monty asked “I thought you said you were cool?”

Bellamy takes a deep breath “Yeah, we’re cool.”

Raven nods in agreement “Totally.”

“Then what’s the…” Monty’s gaze lands on Clarke, who must be doing a horrible job at trying to mask how freaked out she is. He sighs and shoots his friend a not so subtle glare “Goddamn it Jasper.”

“What?! I was joking…I…."Jasper squints at Clarke, "Fuck, are you serious? You didn’t tell me that you didn’t tell….”

“You know what?” Clarke says quickly “I’m gonna get a beer, does anyone need one?"

She jumps up before anyone can answer, but she does catch Jasper’s vicious whisper “Well I wouldn’t have said anything if I would have known!”

She heads straight to her freezer where there’s a bottle of Jägermeister from those first dark days after Finn hidden under some frozen French fries. It’s been outlawed from Poker Night (because there were always horrible incidents with fire on Jägermeister nights) but there’s no reason she shouldn’t be able to indulge herself, especially in an emergency (and for some reason this felt like an emergency). She just wanted to stop feeling like her stomach was plummeting. It wasn’t a big deal. Clarke liked Raven, it would be great if she and Bellamy dated, they would be good together…..God, even thinking it made everything feel worse. She threw her junk drawer open and pulled out two cheap little plastic shot glasses. She drank the first one to calm down, the second one to forget, the third one to avoid going back in that room, and the fourth one because she honestly had no idea what the hell was happening to her right now...... and that’s when Raven finds her.

“Hey.” Clarke jumps and hides the bottle behind her back. “You were taking a long time so…..what are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Clarke says as she puts the bottle back in its hiding spot “just taking the edge off of my losing streak.”

Raven raises her eyebrows “Are you okay?”

Clarke smiles (God she can even _feel_ how fake and ridiculous it looks) “I’m fine!” she says “I’m just going to cut up some more lime for the tequila.”

“I think everyone is just about done with the tequila.”

“It’s still early,” Clarke says as she rummages through her fridge for another lime “I’ll be back in a minute. Tell Miller to deal me in.”

She can feel the alcohol start to cloud her head, it’s subtle but it’s enough to calm her down so she can look Raven in the eye. 

“Clarke,” Raven says “I don’t want you to think I was keeping anything from you. It was just…after the Christmas party. I was drunk and sad and I think I sort of took advantage of him. It wasn’t a big deal you know, but for some reason….it felt weird to tell you.”

“Why would it be weird?” Clarke asks “I think it’s great, you and Bellamy, Bellamy and you. FUCK!” The knife slips and lime juice covers a cut on her finger “Mother of God that stings!”

“Put it under water…”

“I’ve got it!” she sort of snaps “Medical school remember? Look, everything is fine….just go back in the other room I’ll be right in.”

Raven walks away (albeit reluctantly) and Clarke wraps a towel around her bleeding finger (she also pulls that bottle out and takes another shot for good measure). She’s a goddamn coward and she’ll have a horrible hangover in the morning, but she feels better. Her smile feels more natural, her steps are more confident (some would say wobbly), but she walks back into the living room and sits in her chair without noticing everyone’s concerned stares. 

“Okay, let’s go.” She says as she looks as her cards.

“Clarke,” Miller says “You’re bleeding.”

“Yeah, I cut myself slicing limes.”

“What limes?”

“Fuck, I forgot the limes!”

“Don’t worry about it Clarke,” Raven says “I seriously think we’ve retire the tequila. Jasper looks like he’s falling asleep.”

“He’s moping.” Monty says “He usually does when Poker Night is ruined.”

“Poker night is not ruined.” Clarke says sharply “I’m ready to win my money back.”

“Princess, you’re getting blood on the table, you have to get a band aid or something.” Bellamy says cautiously.

“I’m fine,” she snaps without looking at him. 

“How deep of a cut is …..”

“Jesus, I’m a fucking doctor Bellamy. I can take care of a cut.” That time she really snaps. He recoils a bit and Jasper makes an exasperated whining sound before burying his head in his arms. 

Bellamy is looking right at her when he announces to the room that it’s getting pretty late, “I think we should call it a night.”

“It’s my apartment,” Clarke says “I say when we should call it a night.”

As soon as she reaches for the bottle of tequila Bellamy rips it away. They glare at each other. It’s silent for about a minute before everyone jumps up and starts muttering excuses.

“I should get Jasper home before the crying starts”

“I’m on call for the rest of the weekend I should get some sleep while I can”

“I have a paper due on Monday and I haven’t even started.”

Miller and Monty balance Jasper between them as they shoot Bellamy a sympathetic look and rush out the door. Raven manages a smile and tells Clarke to give her a call the next day if she wants to make plans for the weekend. She nods at Bellamy, grabs her messenger bag from the recliner, and closes the door behind her before Clarke even has time to process what is going on.

“Why did you do that?” she finally snaps at Bellamy when he starts to clean empty bottles from the table.

“Because you need to sleep off whatever the fuck is wrong with you.”

“Nothing is wrong with me.”

“A half hour ago nothing was wrong with you, now you’re acting ridiculous.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” the question surprises her as it comes out of her mouth. Bellamy turns his back to her and runs a hand through his hair. “You slept with my friend and you didn’t even tell me?”

“Jesus Clarke, is that what this is about?” he gestures to her like she’s some kind of mess. All it does is piss her off more.

“Why didn’t you? I thought we were friends?”

“I…” he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath “I don’t know okay? It didn’t seem important. I didn’t think I had to give you notice every time I fuck someone.”

“But _Raven_?” She tries to ignore the fact that she says her name the way she did back during the Finn fiasco.

“We were drunk. She was upset about Finn and…”

“I was upset about Finn.” She all but screams at him “I was upset about Finn and you never….”

“Are you seriously mad at me because I didn’t try to fuck you when your boyfriend cheated on you?”

“Of course not! I’m mad at you because you lied to me!”

“I didn’t lie to you.”

“It’s lying by omission Bellamy.”

“It wasn’t even a big deal. There is nothing going on between us. It was one time.”

“Then you should have told me.”

“Why? So you could act like this? I’m a grown man I can have sex without your permission.”

She glares at him. She fucking hates that patronizing tone. “You’re right. Why don’t you go do that.”

She storms into the kitchen and turns to the sink. Her hand is still bleeding. She’s going to be so fucking pissed if it needs stitches. She tries to pretend that it’s the sting of the water on the wound that brings the tears to her eyes. It’s not ….its the Jäger and something that feels suspiciously like heartbreak. 

“Let me see it,” he comes up behind her and cages her in, pulling her hand from the sink and inspecting it. His skin is so warm she’s almost concerned, but everything feels tingly and her stomach is plummeting again (although in a much different way). He wraps another dishrag around her hand and traps it between his own and then he looks at her……and Goddamn it. She surges forward and brushes her lips against his, no pressure, no movement, just a brush as quick and gentle as the way she blinks at him afterwards when he stares at her like she’s just revealed every one of his deepest darkest secrets. 

“Clarke,” he warns but she doesn’t want him to act like her fucking watchdog anymore. She doesn’t want him to tell her this is stupid, that’s she’s drunk, that she’ll regret it. She doesn’t want him to say anything at all. So, this time she leans further into him. When their lips connect she closes her eyes as tightly as she can. She can feel his heart pounding against her shoulder, his hands grip hers a little tighter. Just when she’s about to pull away and apologize or yell at him (or burst into tears because she’s acting so fucking crazy) he pulls her lower lip between his own. When she sighs and smiles into his mouth he draws her even closer. It’s warm and safe and wonderful in this corner he’s backed her into, his arms on either side of her, the sink pressing against her back with the water still running. He chases her lips when she pulls away for breath, she fists her good hand in his shirt, it feels like days pass while they stand there. It’s her phone that ruins it. The chime of a text message (that ends up being an apology from Raven) that brings them both back to reality. Bellamy takes a step away from her, looking down at his feet almost in shame. “Clarke, why do you taste like Jäger?”

She leans back against the sink “I have a bottle hidden in the freezer.”

He nods “Octavia bought it when you broke up with Finn.” He says and of course he knows because those two tell each other everything. “She says it’s the best medicine for a broken heart.”

She can hear the accusation in his voice, but she’s in no state to have an important conversation, especially when she doesn’t even understand how she feels. 

“I don’t want you to date Raven.” She says simply.

“I don’t want to date Raven.”

“I’m sorry that I… I ruined Poker Night.”

“Jasper ruined poker night…. And I should have told you.”

“I still would have been upset.”

“I’m telling you that it didn’t mean anything.”

“Did this?” she gestures between the two of them.

He shakes his head “I don’t think it can,” he says “not when you’re drunk, and…”

“I get it. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…”

“I want this.” He says suddenly “I really want this, but…. I don’t want to ruin…”

She looks at him and she’s sure the sadness in his eyes is reflected in her own “poker night?”

He gives her a small smile “Yeah.” He says “poker night is really important to me. I don’t want to lose it.”

“I understand.”

He stands there and stares at her for another minute. “I should probably go.” He finally says “Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine.” She tries to smile “Be careful on the stairs.”

She follows him to the front door, where he refuses to meet her eyes (because if he does he’ll probably talk himself into staying and she knows it.)

“Bellamy,” she calls when he’s halfway down her hallway “Poker Night isn’t going anywhere.”

He smiles back at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time!:
> 
> Wick, Follow the Queen, Ciroc Cononut, and....."Um, you guys know they're banging right?"


	5. Follow the Queen & Ciroc Coconut

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yes, this is sort of inspired by 'My Boys' (it's an older show....but I think it's on Netflix if you're interested). Thank you for everyone who has read so far! This is definitely not my best writing and its super corny but...its fun and I think this fandom could use some fun right now. I hope you enjoy!

_Follow the Queen, Ciroc Cononut_

“Are you going to stare at the door or are you going to open it?” Wick looks up at her and raises his eyebrows.

“You know you _say_ that she’s cool with me being here, but you’ve never been on the receiving end of a Raven Reyes gut-shot so I don’t think you understand what’s really at stake here.”

Clarke rolls her eyes and reaches around him to turn her doorknob “How many times do I have to tell you that she likes you before you believe me?”

“She’s got a funny fucking way of showing it.”

“And yet you’re still here.”

Wick smirks “Is this the part in the Disney movie when I break into song about my resilience and fiery burning passion….”

“I’m pretty sure as a rule Disney tries to leave fiery and burning passions out of their movies. Let’s try to keep tonight PG alright?”

He snorts as she opens the door. Her apartment is pretty big, a couch, a recliner, an incredible TV. If he squints his eyes he can see a poker table set up in the back corner of the living room, but it’s pretty hard to see through all the smoke.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!”

Wick shakes his head, _Clarke Griffin keeping it PG._

“CIGARS?!” she demands as she stalks towards them “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?”

“Calm down Princess, they cracked a window.”

“and YOU” she points to a guy who has tried to make an uncomfortable suit as comfortable as possible, his tie is thrown over the back of the chair he’s sitting on, his shirt sleeves rolled up. He’s smirking up at her while Clarke glares daggers at him (Wick’s pretty sure the sexual tension is almost as noticeable as the cloud of cigar smoke) “how could you let them do this?!”

“Come on Clarke,” a guy with goggles on his head pleads “it’s not a big deal. Poker and cigars are just kind of a thing, haven’t you ever seen that painting with the dogs…HEY!”

“Out!” Clarke yells as she rips them from their mouths (all expect for Raven who is laughing and pretending that she hasn’t noticed him standing by the couch) “put them out, every last one.”

“So I take it you had a bad day today?” the dude wearing a beanie asks.

Clarke disappears to throw the cigars away, she returns with a giant fan and a can of air freshener.

“Are you through?”

“This is my apartment Bellamy. If you don’t like it, get out.”

“Uh Mom and Dad,” the guy sitting next to goggles guy chimes in “we have a visitor.”

Clarke shoots Wick an apologetic look and rushes over to push him forward. “I’m sorry. Guys this is Wick, he lives upstairs. This is Jasper (goggles), Monty (guy next to goggles), Miller (beanie), and Bellamy (Sexual tension) and of course you know Raven.”

Raven smiles at him, but just barely. Still, it’s more than he gets at work every day and that’s usually when he has his best material. Clarke starts shuffling chairs around, obviously trying to place him next to Raven, who is trying so hard not to glare at her that it actually makes him laugh. He ends up squashed between Raven and Bellamy (Clarke conveniently manages to fit her chair on the other side of him).

“Okay, elephant in the room.” Jasper says suddenly, “Wick, have you see anyone at this table naked?”

Everyone around the table groans. Wick just laughs and tries not to look over at Raven “No, I haven’t.” he wants to add on a smarmy “not yet”, but he knows that’ll only get him punched. Clarke said the best thing to do is to get to know Raven, to be her friend. 

Eventually he realizes it’s not all that hard to do. At work Raven is usually subdued and focused , here with her friends (once she gets used to him being there) she’s brighter and somehow…..actually more beautiful. He laughs to himself when the thought crosses his mind, because he’s had experiences with plenty of women but this thing with Reyes …it’s becoming pretty clear to him that he is well and truly fucked. 

“You need a beer old man?” Raven asks him as she stands up with her own empty bottle just after the second hand.

“Old man?” he scoffs. “I prefer the term seasoned gentleman if you don’t mind.”

“It’s the stache” Jasper says. “it makes you look like you’re about to whip out a monocle and criticize me for putting my elbows on the table.” 

“Actually, I think it’s more because you’re thirty.” She brings him a beer from the kitchen even though he didn’t ask. He smiles.

“Oh right,” he says sarcastically “the two year age gap between us must make it really hard for you to relate to me.”

“Not necessarily, I mean my grandfather lives in Texas so it’s nice having you around in case I need some sage advice.”

“That’s true. I am full of sage advice,” he leans closer to her like he’s whispering a secret “when you’re playing poker for instance, you’ve got to know when to hold em’, know when to fold em,” he takes a breath to appreciate her smile before making his voice sound even more clipped and serious, “know when to walk away, _and_ know when to run. See, you should never count your money while you’re sitting at the table. There will be plenty of time for counting when the dealing is done.”

“You are an absolute idiot.”

“I was going to turn it into a song and everything, but apparently some jackass beat me too it.”

She nudges his arm as she laughs. He really, really hopes he’ll be invited back to Poker Night.

He spends most of the night observing. He learns some of Raven’s idiosyncrasies (ones he didn’t already see at work). She toys with the charm of her necklace in between hands. He used to think it was a nervous habit (she’d do it at work when she was stressed) but there’s something in her eyes when she spaces out with the little metal bird between her fingers. He figures she’s remembering something. 

She pours out the last inch or so of beer in every bottle (she calls it the worms). 

She gets really competitive. He’s pretty sure she’s frightened Jasper into folding a few times. 

He’s amazed she hasn’t caught him staring. Of course she may just be waiting until the end of the night to punch him in the gut in the privacy of the hallway. 

He realizes, in between staring at her, that her friends are actually pretty cool. 

Jasper, who is ridiculously smart for a dude in goggles, has a million stories that end in “and then it blew up!” He even has a few scars that he’s happy to show. “Just a few second degree burns,” he says “No big deal.”

Miller, who becomes more talkative as the beer keeps flowing spends the whole night cursing Raven for her choice in liquor. Apparently he has a pretty serious aversion to coconut. He makes a face like he’s gargling human waste every time they do a shot, but because he doesn’t have a life threatening allergy, Raven refuses to compromise.

“It’s like I’m drinking suntan lotion,” he says through gritted teeth “suntan lotion and fifty packets of Splenda.”

“Clarke’s got some rubbing alcohol in the medicine cabinet if you want to wash your mouth out.” Bellamy says with a laugh. 

Clarke panics when Miller actually stands up and stalks to the bathroom “No! don’t you dare put rubbing alcohol in your mouth Nathan Miller, use the Listerine!” 

He and Monty have a pretty in-depth discussion about Breaking Bad. Raven keeps getting pissed off and pressing her hands to her ears because she’s still churning through the series on Netflix.

“You should have just watched it when everyone else did.” Monty says, grinning as Miller loudly endures another shot.

“Yeah Reyes,” Wick asks with a smirk “What gives?”

“I don’t like live TV okay? I don’t like having to wait a week to see what happens. With Netflix I wait thirty seconds …”

“That is such a cop out!”

“Binge watching is a way of life Wick, just because you’re too cheap to have a monthly subscription to anything….”

“Tell you what Reyes, I’ll give Netflix a try if you show me how to use it.”

“You’re a fucking engineer and you can’t figure out how to….” She rolls her eyes as Monty snorts behind his hand, “very subtle Mr. Smooth.”

Wick smiles. She changes the subject (bullying Jasper into getting her another beer with her eyes ) but she doesn’t say no and that’s enough for him.

He wasn’t expecting Clarke and Bellamy to be so quiet.

He’s seen Bellamy in the building a couple of times. Once when he and Clarke were having a screaming match in the lobby (he could have sworn they were yelling something about a game of Battleship) and another time when he stopped by Clarke’s because he heard shouting and found them both sitting on her couch watching a World Cup match. It’s clear to him that neither of them are particularly quiet people, so he’s confused..... until he watches them for a couple of minutes out of the corner of his eye. It seems that Mr. and Mrs. Sexual Tension are in their own little world tonight. He just smirks at whatever is going on under their side of the table. He may be the new guy, but he’s not blind or stupid. 

They’re all debating whether to order a pizza when the little bubble around the lovebirds pops.

“Goddamn it Clarke,” Bellamy says suddenly, throwing his cards on the table and glaring at her. Wick sees her try to wipe the satisfied smirk off of her face. No one else is even looking, he assumes that this is a regular show for them. Bellamy takes a deep breath (formulating his lie, Wick figures) “I can hear your dryer squeaking. Weren’t you supposed to call someone about that?”

Wick tries to listen over the music and the sounds of Jasper and Monty debating over pyrotechnics, he’s pretty sure there’s no dryer squeaking (a fact confirmed by the very brief but obvious flash of confusion on Clarke’s face.)

“I don’t know what you expect me to do about it now.”

“I can’t stand it, seriously go turn it off.”

“No! I’m behind on my laundry as it is!”

“Fine!” he stands up from the table and pushes his chair out “deal me out on this one.” And then he storms off down the hallway leading to what Wick assumes is a laundry room. Clarke (of course) follows after him. “Don’t Bellamy, you’re going to break it!”

“See it’s a good thing Wick is here,” Jasper says “Now we don’t have to take a break and wait for Mom and Dad to stop fighting.”

“This happens all the time,” Raven explains “Bellamy will go back there and mess with it, even though I’ve looked at the fucking thing and can’t find a problem. He swears it squeaks every time it moves. He’s going to end up breaking it and Clarke is going to hit the fucking roof.” 

Wick narrows his eyes at the serious look on her face as they all break into conversation about the apparent war between Bellamy and Clarke’s dryer. He is honestly shocked, because an industrial mechanic, two biochemists, and a cop are being fooled by literally the worst excuse he’d ever heard.

“Um, you guys know they’re banging right?”

They all turn to stare at him, and then they burst out laughing. “Don’t worry new guy, we all totally ship it too, but it’s not gonna happen. They’re too damn stubborn for their own good.” Jasper explains.

“Okay, I don’t know what “ship it” means, but I’m pretty sure they are definitely banging …like right now, at this very moment.”

Monty shoots him a sympathetic smile “It’s just their thing, insurmountable sexual tension that only goes to waste.”

“It’s not going to waste.”

“Wick….”

“You guys are seriously buying this squeaky dryer shit?”

“You just don’t know them…”

“I know Bellamy has spent the better part of the last two hours with his hand up Clarke’s skirt.”

Jasper actually spits his beer across the table (narrowly avoiding Wick’s face.)

“Are you fucking serious?” Raven demands “How do you know?”

“Because I saw it.” He says with a laugh “Seriously, no one else noticed?”

Miller stares at him like he’s just committed a crime “Are you absolutely sure that’s what you saw?”

“I mean, it was pretty hard to miss.” He says “You weren’t wondering why he was playing one handed….”

“There’s no way.” Monty says “There’s no way. We would have noticed. They’ve been doing this dryer thing for months. They wouldn’t keep it from us.”

“Go put your ear to that laundry room door. I’ll bet you every penny in my wallet that any squeaking you hear will not be coming from a dryer.”

Jasper stands up, chugs his beer, pulls his goggles down over his eyes, and salutes before tip-toeing dramatically down the hallway.

“Awe Wick, you’re gonna get his hopes up.” Raven says with a smirk.

He turns his body to face her and narrows his eyes. “You know, there’s a lot about you that is really starting to make sense.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means when it comes to sexual tension, you’re a regular Helen Keller.”

She snorts. “Oh please, I could smell the skinny love on them the first time I saw them together.”

Wick just smiles “I wasn’t really talking about _them_ Reyes.”

Before she can reply, and he’s seriously waiting for that reply because he’s almost positive that Raven is actually blushing, Jasper comes racing back into the room, nearly knocking Clarke’s empty chair over in his haste to make it back to his own.

“Oh my god,” he says, repeating it like a personal mantra and gripping his hair (looking a little bit too much like a mental patient). “Guys, you guys…..he’s right. Wick is right.”

“What!” Miller’s eyes widen.

“Are you sure?” Monty demands.

The table seems to erupt into a panic. Raven is just smiling and shaking her head.

“I’m sure.” Jasper swears “Oh am I sure.”

“How do you know?” Monty demands with wide eyes.

“Because I stuck my ear to the door!”

“Jasper,” Raven chastises “that invading their privacy on a seriously deep level you know that?”

He waves his hand to dismiss her. “Whatever, it’s not like I recorded it.”

“So we’re expected to believe that after all these years Bellarke is alive and banging because you stuck your ear to the door and heard…..”

“Really Miller, you want me to describe it to you?”

“I’m just saying, maybe it’s not what you think it is.”

“No officer I’m pretty sure it’s exactly what I think it is. Unless of course Clarke’s developed a type of asthma that prevents her from catching her breath while stationary and Bellamy has decided that the dryer is the “sexiest fucking thing he’s ever seen.”

“Oh my God!” Monty all but yells, “this is it! It’s happening. This is not a drill!”

“What’s the protocol here?” Miller demands “What do we do? They obviously don’t want us to know, since they didn’t fucking tell us…”

“Oh relax,” Wick says with an easy grin “I’m sure it’s nothing personal, the sneaking around probably just makes it hotter.”

“Look, you all just need to keep your mouths shut okay?” Raven says forcefully “just pretend like nothing happened. As far as they know, we’ve been sitting here talking about cigars for the entire time they’ve been gone.”

“Goddamn I wish she hadn’t thrown those cigars away,” Miller says “That would be the perfect distraction.”

“There doesn’t need to be a distraction! Just act normally!”

“Oh God,” Jasper mumbles nervously “Poker Night could be ruined…..but the Bellarke! This is like Sophie’s choice!”

When they hear the door open in the hallway, Raven starts to shuffle the cards “Back to your regularly scheduled program gentleman.” She advises in a low voice.

Wick watches the three men fix their faces in awkward smiles. “You three look like you’re sitting on barbed wire. Chill the fuck out.” He says.

Jasper glares at him “You don’t understand! We’ve been waiting for years for them to….”

He shuts his mouth as Bellamy flops down into his chair. 

Wick is pretty impressed. He’s managed to avoid looking like he just had a quickie on top of a dryer with a living room full of friends twenty yards away. Bellamy looks up when he sees everyone staring at him, “What’s wrong?” he says quickly “Was something on fire? If it was, tell me now before she….”

“WICK HAS NEVER SEEN GLADIATOR!” Jasper yells, pointing a finger at Wick like he’s committed some horrible travesty. Judging by the way Raven’s head thumps against the table, and Bellamy’s eyes widen….he’s not far off. Yeah…he’s pretty sure he’s never seen Gladiator, but he can’t imagine why the fuck that would even matter.

Bellamy shakes his head, “How have you never seen Gladiator?!”

“And he hates Netflix!” Monty adds in a panicked voice.

“WHAT?!”

Wick doesn’t mind being used as a scapegoat, especially since Raven is giving him a sympathetic smile. If burning him at the stake in some weirdo pop-culture witch hunt will keep things from spiraling into the awkward territory they’re balancing on the edge of ….. he’ll take the hit.

“What’s going on?” Clarke asks as she walks into the room. She’s changed her shirt, her hair is pulled from the elaborate braid she’d had it in before. It hangs at her shoulders now, barely concealing a band aid on her collarbone…one that definitely hadn’t been there an hour ago.

Wick knows everyone has noticed. Jasper’s eyes are wide, Miller is groaning into his hand, and Monty is staring at the table like it’s a complicated math problem. The only one who seems to think this is as funny as he does is Raven.

“What happened there Clarke?” she asks, pointing to the band aid. 

Clarke’s face twists into a weird smile and she moves all of her hair over one shoulder to hide it better “Oh,” she says “that necklace I was wearing. I think it was giving me a rash so I put some ointment on it before it got too bad.”

“Oh,” Raven says “I didn’t even notice you were wearing a necklace.”

Clarke narrows her eyes a bit, “Does anyone need a beer?”

Bellamy raises his hand and turns his head to wink at her.

A weird sound comes from Jasper’s side of the table, like a poorly concealed shriek of glee. Miller is staring at him in horror. Monty nudges him with his shoulder and looks up to Clarke and Bellamy “He’s depressed,” Monty explained “We cut him off.”

Clarke just nods and disappears into the kitchen. Raven starts to deal and Wick turns to Bellamy with a wicked smile. 

“So man,” he says “did you get it done?”

The rest of the table turns to glare at him, Bellamy just raises his eyebrows “What?”

“The dryer?” Wick says “ is it still squeaking?”

“Oh,” he says “It’s fine for now I guess. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with that thing.”

“Hey,” Clarke says when she comes back in “We should order a pizza.”

“We should order two,” Bellamy adds “I’m fucking starving.”

“I bet,” Wick says “that shit is hungry work.”

Raven snorts loudly just as Jasper jumps to his feet. “I can’t” he says “I can’t do this.”

Monty shoots up and clamps hand over Jasper’s mouth, “You know how he gets when he doesn’t eat first. Sit down Jasper.”

“Monty…”

“For the love of Poker Night, please just sit down.”

Jasper falls back into his chair. Clarke and Bellamy retreat into the kitchen to argue quietly over a takeout menu. Wick finds it pretty strange that they don’t see anything wrong with the way their friends are behaving. He must have underestimated how weird these people truly are.

“So Raven,” he says (because the tension in this room is too fucking funny and he needs to make the most of it) “Have you looked at the dryer?”

She smiles, “A few times actually.”

“Just didn’t have it in you to fix it?”

She’s almost shaking with laughter “Nope, I don’t have the right parts.”

This is the most fun he’s ever had. “It’s a good thing Bellamy was here then.”

“Yeah, I guess in the end it just needed a good screw.”

He erupts into laughter and she hits him on the arm. “Shut up.” She says “We’re making this worse.”

Wick looks around the table, Jasper, Monty, and Miller have clearly heard them. They were all struggling not to look at Clarke and Bellamy, who were still lost in their own little argument in the kitchen.

“Please,” Jasper whines “please stop.”

“We are.” Raven assures him “calm down, we were just joking.”

“We should have had protocol for this,” Miller insists “We always joked about it, but we all knew deep down it was inevitable. We should have had a plan.”

“Our plan is to power through.” Monty says “as far as we know nothing happened, so let’s just….ease up on the innuendos okay?”

Wick raises his hands in surrender “Alright, alright.”

Everything seems to calm down. Jasper takes a deep breath. Miller even manages to change the subject, telling them if he was ever shipwrecked on an island he would sooner die than drink from a coconut. The tension starts to thin. It almost looks like they can make it…..and then Clarke comes into the room holding the take out menu.

“I don’t care what you guys want,” she says “this is a meatlover’s night. I’ll eat the whole thing by myself if I have too….what?”

As soon as the word "meatlover" leaves her mouth Monty pulls Jasper to his feet and Miller practically races them to the door.

“Sorry Clarke, “ Monty explains with a red face “We’ve….we’re sick.”

“Fucking coconut.” Miller says quickly “See you tomorrow.”

“Seriously?” Wick yells after them, Raven absolutely dying of laughter next to him “that’s the one that got you? Come on guys!”

They’ve disappeared and pulled the door closed behind them by the time Bellamy walks back into the room.

“What the fuck is wrong with those three?” he asks.

Wick grins “Apparently the sexual tension between Reyes and myself was too much for them to handle.”

The suspicious look on Clarke’s face fades into a smile. “Look at that,” she says “no gut shot.”

“The night is young,” Raven says. She stands and grabs at his shirt as if to say he should follow “I should probably get going though. I’ve gotta pick up some paperwork from Wick’s apartment and head home to pack. I have that fucking conference in Denver this week.”

“Oh, okay.” Clarke says “Well call me before you leave, and let me know if you need a ride to the airport on Monday.”

“Of course!”

“Have fun kids.” Bellamy smiles at them like he knows some kind of secret. The irony is not lost on Wick.

Raven rushes him out the door, pulling it closed behind them and letting out a relieved sigh.

“Just had to get me alone did you?”

She smirks “That was too much.”

“I thought it was fun.”

“Yeah it was.”

They stare at each other for a second. He starts to feel like a teenager on his first date.

“Well you’ve ruined Poker Night.” She finally says with a sarcastic frown.

“Think I’ll be invited back?”

“I’ll put in a good word for you.” Her eyes light up when she smiles and he is so, so unbelievably fucked.

“Did you really need paperwork or…”

“No, no I should get home. I was serious about the packing thing, but um…I’ll see you when I get back?”

“You know where I’ll be.”

She nods and starts to walk towards the elevators. 

“Reyes!”

“Yeah?”

“Give me a call in Denver….let me know how the conference is….if you want.”

She tilts her head to the side “Yeah,” she says “maybe I will.”

So it’s official. Wick is a huge fan of Poker Night. Hopefully the three stooges can forgive him.


	6. 5 Card Draw & Johnnie Walker Blue

_iv. 5 Card Draw, Johnnie Walker Blue_

 

“Honestly Clarke,” Jasper says as he falls into his chair with a heavy thunk. “I just want to have a diplomatic discussion about this.”

“The way you carried on out in the hallway was not diplomatic.” Clarke says as she storms into the kitchen and starts getting ready for everyone else to arrive. “You can’t just accuse me of murder in public Jasper, because no one in their right mind is going to realize you’re talking about a goddamn card game.”

“Oh come on, I didn’t…”

“You said and I quote: _“Look me in the eye and tell me that you haven’t murdered the only thing I really care about in cold blood!”_ how do think that sounded to Ms. Jenkins next door?”

“Fine. I admit that I may have overreacted, but I seem to be the only one who realizes how much you are ruining Poker Night right now.”

Clarke looks up from pouring some pretzels into a bowl and glares at him. “I’m not ruining anything.”

“Really? You’re breaking 2 rules right off the bat. You’ve invited TWO extra people, one of them we met at Mount Weather!”

“First of all, your rules say I can’t bring randos…..Lincoln and Octavia are not randos, Octavia isn’t even playing and there is no reason for us to discuss Mount Weather tonight. I don’t care where we met Lincoln. This will only be a disaster if you make it one.” She knows she’s snapping at him and she hates when the wounded puppy look flashes across his face, but she’s been arguing with Bellamy over text message all day and she’s sick and tired of grown men acting like such fucking babies. 

“Who pissed in your cornflakes?” he says.

“You did!” she says “I’m trying to do something nice for Octavia and I’m getting nothing but shit for it!”

“Because this is our thing….why does _he_ need to be involved?”

It’s like Bellamy is speaking through Jasper’s mouth. “Are you still hung up on Octavia? Is that what this is?”

“No!” he exclaims in an incredibly unnatural high-pitched voice, “I am like….one third of the way to having a girlfriend.”

“Oh really?” Clarke says “So you’ve actually spoken to Maya in person?”

“Hey, we Skype all the time! This is the 21st century! Speaking to her through a webcam is practically the same thing.”

“Jasper, I need you to help me out tonight.” She pleads “Bellamy is already being difficult and I know Monty and Miller will be a little annoyed. Can you please be on my side here? It’s really important to O.”

Jasper stares down at his hands for a second before shaking his head like a wet dog. “Fine!” he says “but I’m doing this under protest and I expect compensation for compromising on the rules.”

“You usually do.” She smiles at him and hands him a beer. The rest of the group should be there any minute. She plans to enjoy the peace while she still can.

“So, you’re dealing tonight right? What’ll it be?”

Clarke walks over to the cabinet in the corner and pushes bottles to the side until she finds what she’s looking for “Johnnie Walker Blue.” She says, setting it on the table in front of him.

“Oh good, whiskey. That’ll lighten the mood.”

“it’s a J night, the alternative is Jägermeister, and anyway Octavia says she’s making margaritas.”

Jasper flinches and she rolls her eyes “There is nothing in the rules about margaritas.”

“Yeah I know,” he says with a depressed sigh “I assumed that it went without saying.” 

“I have seen you drink a margarita before Jasper.”

He looks up at her and his eyes go wide “That is a damnable lie!”

“What is the big deal? It’s alcohol. Haven’t you ever heard of Jimmy Buffet? Margaritaville?”

“Yeah, well maybe if I had gotten a little more support when I wanted to invest in a boat me and Jimmy would be better acquainted.”

“You’ll enjoy it I promise. It’ll be a nice break from the beer and…”

“Oh no, there won’t be any margaritas at the table Clarke.” He says “Bellamy won’t allow it.”

“Bellamy doesn’t run the show.”

“He says any drink that can be garnished with fruit or a tiny umbrella should not be consumed by a man…..unless he’s in Jamaica.”

She rolls her eyes.

“He also shunned me for a week that time I put hot sauce on his chili, he said I was destroying his sacred family recipe at a molecular level…which is astronomically inaccurate and also pretty overly dramatic and that’s coming from me. He’s an iron fist Clarke, an old man set in his ways and YOU want to give him whiskey, surround him with fruity drinks, and make him watch his sister make out with a goddamn grounder.”

“Hey! Don’t even think about uttering that word tonight.”

“This is too much and you know it. We might as well just light the entire apartment on fire now and save some time.”

“Yeah you’d love that wouldn’t you Princess Pyro?” she mumbles.

Jasper continues to glare at her, but doesn’t say anything else. He shuffles the cards half-heartedly with his head in his hand until Monty shows up with a bag of Taco Bell. 

“Did you smoke without me?” Jasper demands.

“No jackass, I figured you’d be in a bad mood so I brought this to take the edge off.” Monty lets his eyes sweep over the table and sighs “and I’m glad I did. Clarke, are you sure whiskey is a good idea tonight? Bellamy gulps this shit down like water.”

“Octavia is making margaritas.” Jasper says in the high-pitched voice he uses to imitate everyone. 

Clarke ignores them and pulls the cards away from Jasper. “Let’s try to remember that we’re all adults here okay?”

Monty and Jasper roll their eyes and mumble something that sounds like _Yes mom_ under their breaths. 

Clarke takes her first shot when Miller comes barreling into the apartment and stops dead in his tracks when he sees the extra chair at the table.

“You were serious?” he asks.

“Yes I was serious.” Clarke says “I don’t get you three. Lincoln has been nothing but nice to you…”

“It’s not Lincoln we have a problem with!” Jasper says, keeping one eye on the door in case one of them were to walk in. “There’s going to be a Blake brawl tonight and we all know it.”

“There is not.”

“You know, while we wait I think I’m gonna learn how to say “I told you so” in as many languages as possible.” He pulls out his phone and starts tapping away. 

She takes her second shot when Raven walks in. She’s holding out her cell phone with a seriously annoyed look on her face.

“It’s for you.” she snaps, all but throwing her phone in Clarke’s lap. “He’s been blowing up my phone for the last fifteen minutes.”

Clarke rolls her eyes and presses the phone to her ear. “What?” she says.

Bellamy sighs angrily “Where the fuck is your phone?”

“Charging. What do you want?”

“I’m not coming.”

Clarke grits her teeth and retreats to the privacy of her bedroom. “Bellamy, don’t do this.”

“I’m not in the mood to fight with her…”

“So don’t fight with her!”

“Clarke,”

“You promised me. You promised me and you promised O and you are not backing out. Grow up and get over here.”

He’s quiet for a second and then he takes a deep breath. “I’m already here. I’ll be up in a minute.”

When he finally makes it up to the apartment, he’s got such a fake smile on his face she wants to punch him.

“Where’s the guest of honor?” he asks bitterly, grabbing the bottle of whiskey and pouring himself a shot. 

“They’re going to be a little late. Lincoln hit traffic on the way home from work.” Clarke explains. “Why don’t you take it easy on the…”

“Trust me Princess, you don’t want me to be sober for this.”

“What is the big goddamn deal?” Raven asks “Octavia loves the guy, she cares enough about what you all think to bring him around to get to know you better.”

“I know him well enough.”

“Bellamy,” Clarke pleads “please just give him a chance. A lot has changed in four years. He and Octavia are really serious. You don’t want a rift in your relationship.”

Bellamy turns his head to snap something back, but Jasper interrupts “Look let’s just make the best of this.” He says “We’ll play some poker, make fun of that horrible interview Miller gave on the news last night, and it’ll be fine.”

When reminded of Miller stuttering and tripping over himself on live TV, Bellamy cracks a small smile. Clarke shoots Jasper a thankful look and the table dissolves into laughter and the usual conversation. It feels like any other Thursday night……until Octavia Blake throws the apartment door open.

“PARTY’S HERE!”

She opens her arms wide and beams at everyone, Lincoln follows politely behind her, his arms filled with bags.

“Good God Octavia,” Clarke says as she jumps up to greet them “I told you not to bring anything.”

“Oh shut up,” she says through a hug “It’s not that much, stuff for margaritas, my bean dip, a few bags of tortilla chips, a vegetable tray, and some blondies.”

She hears the table behind her erupt into a cheer when Octavia mentions her blondies (a super-secret family recipe she usually only breaks out on Bellamy’s birthday.) Octavia beams and makes her way over to the table to be encompassed in hugs (and Jasper’s usual marriage proposal). 

“Here Lincoln,” Clarke says with a friendly smile “bring all that into the kitchen.”

He follows her and listens to her orders a she tells him where to put everything. “Thank you for doing this Clarke.” He says in his surprisingly quiet voice. “I know its…”

“Lincoln,” she puts her hand on his forearm and shakes her head “It’s gonna be fine. If you can handle Octavia, you can handle any of them a hundred times over.”

He smiles back at her just in time for Octavia to duck into the kitchen and pull him out to the table to reintroduce him to everyone. 

Clarke finds her blender in the cabinet under her sinkand starts to wash it out, in a few minutes she has it plugged in and ready to go. Octavia walks up behind her as she’s messing with her ice maker. 

“Hey!” she says, smiling brightly when Clarke jumps a little bit.

“Jesus, Octavia, you’re like a damn ghost.”

“I’m like a Prius,” she says “totally silent under 8 mph.”

Clarke laughs “So how did it go in there?”

She starts to fiddle with her shirt. “Alright I think. He hit it off with Raven at least. Jasper and Monty are being awkward as fuck and Miller is just trying to distract Bellamy but I mean…no one is throwing hands so I can’t exactly complain.”

“No one is going to throw hands.”

“Bellamy actually asked him how he was doing….shook his hand too. At Christmas he would barely look at him.”

Clarke smiles “That’s great! See, you were worried for nothing.”

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure the difference comes down to you.”

“Bellamy doesn’t listen to me. He loves you Octavia. He’s doing this for you.”

“Still… I mean I’m lucky to have a brother like Bell but, you’ve been like a sister to me. Every time I need you, you pull through. Even when it’s finals week and I need you to pick me up from a party in the city at 3 AM. I honestly don’t know what I would do without you.”

Clarke wraps her arms around her “We aren’t supposed to cry on Poker Night.” She says with a laugh. 

“I don’t care. I love you.” Octavia says.

“I love you too.”

They break from their hug when someone clears their throat from the doorway. Bellamy is staring at them with a small smile on his face. “Hey O, I just thought you should know that Jasper and Miller are coordinating an attack plan to take out those blondies.”

Octavia lets Clarke go and shakes her head “I’ll take care of it.” 

When she leaves the kitchen Bellamy looks over his shoulder a few times, and starts to walk towards her.

“So I heard that you managed to be civil. I hope you feel like an idiot now for throwing a fit like you….”

With one last glance over his shoulder he pushes her against the fridge and presses his lips to hers. She enjoys it for all of ten seconds before she remembers where they are…that they haven’t exactly told everyone what they’ve been doing and if they know about it…they certainly haven’t said anything. It’s starting to become a problem, because it’s been almost a year and they still haven’t had the horrible _define the relationship discussion_. It’s not just sex at this point, she knows that…honestly she doubts that it ever was.

“Bellamy,” she says in a breathless voice that makes him groan and press himself harder against her. “Anyone could walk in.”

“Don’t care,” he says against her jawline.

“Hey,” she pulls his chin until he’s facing her “not that I’m complaining but…”

“I never even thought to thank you,” he says “for everything you’ve done for her.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that Bellamy, she’s my friend.”

“You’re like family to her. She loves you. We don’t have a lot of family Clarke.”

“So you’re making out with me in the middle of my kitchen because your sister loves me?” she asks with her eyebrows raised. 

Bellamy pulls back and looks her in the eye. His face is serious…more serious than she’s seen in a long time. “No,” he says “because I…”

“Did you guys ever hear the story about Jasper’s boxers?” They jump apart as Octavia walks into the kitchen, holding her stomach and laughing. 

Clarke quickly fixes her hair and walks around Bellamy to open the margarita mix. “Uh, what about Jasper’s boxers?”

“Monty said when they were in High school Jasper got into it with some kid in their biology class. He said _‘even my underwear says genius’_ he was wearing fucking Guinness boxers.”

Bellamy smiles awkwardly and excuses himself to the bathroom. Clarke tries to laugh, but her mind is following him right out the door. 

“It’s really not that funny,” Octavia explains “but he’s so embarrassed, you should have seen his face when Monty told us. Clarke, you don’t have to do this…” she swats her hands away from the blender, “they’re waiting to deal you in. Go play.”

“No, no I can…”

“Seriously, go play.”

She shoots her friend a grateful smile and walks into the living room to find her seat. Jasper is pouting a little, and Bellamy still looks suspiciously serious, but overall things seem to be going well. Lincoln is quiet, but he chimes into the conversation every once in a while, and when Octavia brings them dip and bowls of chips (like a mom feeding a soccer team after practice) Bellamy doesn’t even flinch when she presses a kiss to Lincoln’s cheek.

As it usually goes, Clarke starts to believe that the night may actually work out. And then the phone rings….

Everyone looks up in shock. (her landline probably only rings three times a year if that).

“Just let the machine get it.” She says.

Jasper jumps up “If it’s a telemarketer can I answer? I want to try out my Canadian accent.”

“Sure Jasper.”

They all wait in silence as the machine picks up, the beep ringing through the apartment.

_“Dr. Griffin, this is Marcus Kane.”_

Clarke’s stomach plummets…why the fuck was he calling her at 9 o’clock on a Thursday night?!

_“I spoke to your mother and she said you were interested in that position in London. I need to make a trip over next week and I thought you’d like to come along. You can tour the hospital and see if it would be a good fit. Please give me a call back when you can. Have a good night.”_

There is a horrible, painful silence when the machine beeps again. Everyone is staring at her. Even Lincoln looks concerned. Octavia is halfway out of the kitchen, her mouth hanging open. Raven is actually glaring at her. Finally it’s Bellamy who breaks the silence.

“So,” he says with a bitter smile “You’re interested in a position in London?”

She takes a deep breath and covers her face with her hands. Her mother had mentioned it to her a few weeks ago. Clarke had blown it off at the time, admitting it would be a good opportunity just so her mother would shut up. She hadn’t really considered going. She couldn’t possibly move that far away.

“Clarke,” Bellamy barks when she takes too long to answer.

“No,” she says “No, my mother just suggested it…”

“And you didn’t tell us?” Raven asks.

“She suggests a lot of things. It wasn’t a big deal because I had no intentions of taking it …”

“Kane seems to think you do.” Bellamy snaps.

“Kane has my mother in his ear. Why are you all looking at me like I’ve committed murder?”

“Because you were thinking about moving to London and you didn’t say anything.” Monty explains.

“I was not thinking about it!”

“If you didn’t want to go, if you really thought it was a ridiculous idea you would have told us and you know it.” Bellamy says harshly “You kept your mouth shut because you knew it would be a hard conversation and you didn’t want to deal with it. That’s what you always do.”

“Bellamy,” Octavia warns, shaking her head at her brother.

Clarke glares at him “If you and I need to have a private conversation that’s fine, don’t do this now.”

“Explain something to me,” Raven says “you get offered what I assume is a pretty prestigious position, because I know Marcus Kane is some fancy pants higher-up, and you don’t give it any thought?”

“Yes.” Clarke says “It was just something my mom mentioned and…what?”

Raven is shaking her head “That’s not you Clarke. You’ve been trying to get promoted at the hospital for months. You can’t expect me to believe…..”

“I’m not going okay! I’m not going, so stop giving me the fucking third degree.”

It’s silent again, except for the wrapper on a burrito Jasper is trying to quietly gulp down in three bites (comfort food).

“Maybe you should go.” Bellamy says. His words feel like they actually bruise her. There’s a twist in her gut and a sting behind her eyes and he’s looking at her like she’s betrayed him. “What’s holding you back right?” 

She narrows her eyes at him “Why are you doing this? Because I didn’t mention some fucking job my mother was pushing on me that I didn’t even want? Why would I waste the time to tell you that Bellamy. There was no chance that I was going so…..”

“Oh you mean like the time my department chair recommended me for that summer position in Rome, and I knew I wasn’t qualified enough to actually get it, but I called you the second I got out of the fucking meeting just in case?”

“I….”

“You didn’t want to have that conversation because you were scared, because it would have led to another conversation that you’ve been doing everything in your goddamn power to avoid for months!”

Clarke was very conscious of the eyes on them, Bellamy was practically telling the room that they were sleeping together. No one looked very surprised, of course it may have just been masked by the horror on their faces. 

“Bellamy, we should talk about this…”

“No,” he said, standing up and putting his phone in his pocket “you know what. I actually have to go. I’ve got a thing, so I’ll see you guys later. O I’ll call you tonight. Have fun in England Clarke.”

She jumps up and follows him “Don’t you fucking dare walk out that door. You’ve been acting like a child all day, but this takes the fucking cake. I’m NOT going to England. I never was. How could you think that I could do that….that I could leave you…”

“That you could leave what Clarke? Someone that doesn’t know about half of your life because you’re too fucking afraid of being vulnerable?! It’s not about London, I don’t care about London, but you were willing to completely dismiss an incredible job offer because you were too afraid to talk to me about whatever it is that we are. You complain about every goddamn thing your mother says, but you didn’t say a word about this because you knew what it would lead to.”

“Bellamy,”

“I get it. Okay. I get that you’re not ready for….fuck it. This is my fault. I should have known better, because I know you. Seriously, you should go to England…it sounds like a great opportunity.”

He slams the door in her face before she can even think of a response. Slowly she turns around, somehow managing to keep her frustrated tears from leaking down her face. Everyone is standing up from the table and grabbing their stuff. For once, Jasper isn’t outwardly complaining about the night being ruined. He just looks devastated.

“So,” Raven says “that makes two things you decided to keep from us.”

“Raven,”

“We already knew, but I guess avoiding a conversation with Bellamy is why you thought it was best to keep us in the dark huh?”

When Clarke doesn’t say anything, Raven sighs and puts her bag over her shoulders. “I’ll see you around Clarke.”

Clarke watches her leave, then Miller, then Monty, then Jasper who puts his hand on her shoulder and shakes his head. She assumes this had always been something they’d worried about when they jokingly called her and Bellamy mom and dad. One day, a fight was going to come and they would have to choose. That’s the thought that finally breaks her. She walks over to her couch and sinks into it. Her head resting in her hands. 

Eventually Octavia puts a hand on her shoulder, “I’ll help you clean up.”

“No,” Clarke says “no, he needs you. Go.”

“Clarke,”

“Octavia your brother needs you and I need to be alone. Please go.”

She and Lincoln make fast work of collecting their stuff and walking out the door. She hears them both mumble goodbye, but she doesn’t even look up. All she wants to do is burrow into her bed in the complete darkness and pretend for a few hours like this night never happened. 

She looks at the table on her way to the bedroom, still covered in cards and poker chips and empty beer bottles. Yet, another punch to the gut…..Poker Night might actually be dead. 

**an: Hang in there! I promise promise promise there's a happy ending coming!**


	7. Solitaire on an Airplane & Half a Bottle of Diet Sprite

_i. Solitaire on an Airplane, half a bottle of diet Sprite._

The only thing she’d let herself worry about on the way home from the airport was whether or not the elevator would be broken again. Her suitcase was weighted down with books and expensive boots she’d bought out of a desperation to feel better.

She’d look like a real idiot trying to carry that up the stairs.

Her phone remains silent in her pocket. Granted, everyone that had asked (Octavia and Monty) thought she was coming back on a later flight. She couldn’t stand to be in that country any longer. Not that it wasn’t lovely, but she had gone for all the wrong reasons. She’d gone to spite him, because despite how guilty she felt for making him feel like she didn’t love him more than anything else in her fucking life, she was absolutely furious that he had walked out on her like that. So yeah she’d gone to London, and he hadn’t so much as texted her to make sure the plane landed safely (Octavia had…every twenty minutes). 

Everything in her life just kind of sucks right now, but hey….at least the elevator is working. 

She’d given her spare key to Wick while she was gone (in case of an emergency) she figured he’d probably be by later to drop it off but she’d most likely have her apartment to herself that night. After she showered she planned a trip to the gas station to buy cheap beer and ice cream….maybe she’d even finish off the Jägermeister….

Her heart drops when she grabs her doorknob and realizes that her door is unlocked. She starts to reach for her phone to call the police, but then she hears muffled voices and the smoke alarm. Her instincts force her to throw the door open.

Her apartment is absolute chaos. Raven and Octavia are standing on chairs by her window, a banner hanging limply between them, yelling at Jasper over their shoulders. Monty and Miller are arguing about the smoke alarm (it won’t turn off, Monty wants to destroy it, Miller reminds him that’s illegal), Wick and Lincoln are waving magazines around, trying to clear smoke from the living room, and Jasper is standing in the doorway to the kitchen wearing an apron, “It’s not actually on fire people!” he says. “Stop acting like….” He freezes when he notices her standing at the door. Everyone turns to face her in silence.

“What is going on?” she asks, too shocked to really move. 

Jasper rushes forward and points a finger at her “You weren’t supposed to land until seven!” he says “It’s only six!”

“I caught an early flight,” she says “Did I interrupt something? Should I come back later after you’ve finished destroying my apartment?”

“Clarke,” Octavia says as she climbs down from the chair “this was supposed to be a surprise. We just weren’t ready for you.”

“A surprise for what? Will someone please turn that goddamn smoke alarm off!.”

Monty snatches it from Miller and tosses it against the wall where it falls to the floor in silence. 

“It’s a welcome home party,” Raven says, joining Octavia where she’s standing in the middle of the apartment. “and an apology….for the other week.”

“We shouldn’t have walked out on you like that,” Miller explains.

“And we don’t want you to think we’re mad at you,” Monty adds “because we’re not.”

“We’re not giving up poker night!” Jasper says “even if you move to London, we’ll use Skype…and some kind of Robot arm, Wick has some designs…”

“I’m not going to London.” Clarke says, smiling for the first time in days “I’m not going anywhere… and I’m…..I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about the job…or about me and Bellamy. I shouldn’t have put you all in that position. I’m not ready to give up Poker Night either.”

There’s a whirlwind of laughter and pushing and hugs. Clarke stands in the middle of all her friends as they start firing off questions about her trip. Eventually the mob moves towards the table, it’s the first time they’ve all sat there without the poker top. 

Jasper comes out of the kitchen proudly carrying what he claims is a peach pie (her favorite) she eats it…even though it sort of tastes like firewood , because he insists that it’s simply well-done. An hour must pass. Octavia is putting food in front of her, Wick is making her laugh, Raven is trying on all the boots she brought home, there’s so much to be happy about that she almost doesn’t notice that he’s not there.

_Almost._

She wants to ask Octavia, but she knows it’ll only kill the mood. If he wanted to talk to her, he would. Bellamy Blake was pretty straightforward, that was probably what made it so hard. He wore his heart on his sleeve, she tried to keep hers hidden away. She could blame her father’s death and Finn’s betrayal all she wanted…..the fact of the matter is that she was afraid, and she had let Bellamy get hurt because she couldn’t grow up and actually put herself out there for once.  
She was still pissed, but she knew he had a right to be just as angry with her. If he didn’t want to be there then that was the way it was….maybe in a few days she would try to call him. If he actually answered…..

Her apartment door bangs open and everyone turns in shock.

He’s standing there, looking just as furious as he had the last time he’d left, his wet hair falling into his eyes, his clothes completely soaked.

“Bell!” Octavia yells, rushing forward like he’s about to collapse “What the hell happened to you?”

“There was a downpour,” he says, his eyes scanning the room until they land on Clarke “See I was at the airport…. _you_ were not.”

“She caught an earlier flight.” Jasper explains. 

“You’re dripping on my floor.” She’s a little embarrassed that that’s the only thing she can think of to say to him, but she almost laughs at the look of outrage on his face. For a minute it feels just like it used to. The air is charged as the glare at each other, until Bellamy kicks the door closed behind him and stumbles further into the apartment.

“Everyone out.” He says.

They all look at him, look at Clarke, and look at each other.

“Did I stutter?!”

With a jolt they all jump to their feet. Lincoln has to physically pull Octavia from the room (she seems to think Bellamy’s demand doesn’t apply to her), Monty, Miller, and Jasper fill their arms with bags of chips and beer and follow behind them. Wick and Raven take up the rear. As usual Wick is laughing _“Hey Reyes, why don’t we go check Clarke’s dryer?”, “Seriously Wick? Shut up.”_

When the door closes, and she’s confident that they all have their ears pressed against it, she lets her eyes settle on him.

“Do you want me to get you a towel?” she asks.

“No.” he says. He notices her suitcase on the couch. “Did you have fun?”

“No.”

They’re quiet for a moment. He’s giving her a chance to do this on her terms but honestly…..she has no idea where to even begin. He looks so intense right now that she can’t decide whether she wants to hide from him or throw herself at him.

“I want you explain something to me.” He says “I understand that you have trust issues, I understand that you’re still focused on your career, I realize that relationships scare you, but what’s between us is already a done deal. It’s not something you can just turn off and ignore Clarke. So I don’t want to hear that _I can’t lose you_ shit, because you can’t tell me this past week wasn’t exactly what you were afraid of. So that leads me to think that you didn’t want to talk about us because you were afraid of what I would say, and I don’t understand that. How could you doubt for even a fucking second that I’m completely in love with you?”

She stares at him, “Are you seriously telling me that you’re in love with me in the middle of an argument?”

“Well we never talked about it in casual conversation so…”

“What about you Bellamy?! If I was supposed to be so sure of your feelings why couldn’t you see that I felt the same way? I didn’t consider London because I had no interest in moving away from you. Yeah, I was afraid to talk about it, and okay I apologize for that, but you stormed out of here like I had just stabbed you in the heart and that was bullshit.”

“You’re a fucking flight risk Clarke. Back in college you used to take off to random countries every summer just to avoid your mother. So I panicked, because as much as I know you have feelings for me….I didn’t know if it was enough and you not telling me about it….” He runs his hand over his face. “I’m sorry for the way I left.”

She takes a couple of steps towards him “I’m sorry that I didn’t go after you.”

“So,” he shuffles on his feet “London?”

“I’m not moving to London.”

He nods. “So where do we go from here?”

“Well, I uh… I guess I should tell you….that I thought about you every minute I was gone.”

He smiles “Yeah?”

“And…it wasn’t just about…sex or whatever. It’s just you, because I love you and I want to do this, really do this…if you do.”

His wet hands find her waist. She crinkles her nose as he pulls her into him, he’s freezing cold and he’s soaking through her shirt but when he kisses her, everything feels warm. 

“I love you,” he says against her lips. “I’ve always wanted to really do this.” She smiles and kisses him again, running her hands through his wet hair. 

“You really need a towel.” She laughs.

“I need you,” He mumbles against her neck “and a shower.” His head perks up and he raises his eyebrows like he’s just come up with a genius idea.

“We can’t,” she says, pointing to the door. “The kids.”

“Right,” he untangles himself from her and marches over to the door. When throws it open Miller and Octavia manage to catch themselves before they fall over onto the welcome mat. Jasper is in the middle of the hallway doing what looks like a really elaborate touchdown dance.

“Here’s the deal,” Bellamy says as he pulls his wallet from his back pocket. “I need a half hour…an hour. So take this,” he hands Octavia some money “go upstairs to Wick’s and order some food. We’ll have the table set up when you get back.”

“You’re paying us to…”

“Get the fuck out of here? Yeah I am.”

“Hold on, hold on!” Jasper says “open the door wider so I can get a picture…”

“Jasper!”

“What! I’ve been trying to get _savebellarke_ trending for a week! This is it people, this is the part of the movie where they play the Taylor Swift song!”

“Stop dancing, you’re embarrassing yourself.”

“Let me just get one….”

“You know that movie moment you’re so excited about? You’re kind of ruining it. Now can you guys just get the fuck out of here.” He grips the door and shoots them a smirk, “Poker later though alright?” and then closes it before they can argue. 

 

One hour, that goes by entirely too quickly, later…..Bellamy texts his sister, letting her know they can come back to the apartment. He and Clarke had set the table up. When Bellamy goes to unlock the door, she stands and stares at it. The bent up, faded deck of cards, chips that stuck together sometimes, the stupid felt table top that seemed to be the glue of their little group of friends. 

“Hey Clarke, come here for a second.” Octavia calls out. They’re all lined up by the door carrying beer and pizza boxes. “Jasper wants to apologize for his little…..production earlier, don’t you Jasper?”

He was glaring at her. He may act like an idiot sometimes but it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t appreciate Octavia forcing him in front of Clarke and Bellamy like a mother whose kid had stolen a candy bar from a convenience store.

“Well…” Octavia insists.

“Go on Bud,” Wick smirks “just like we practiced.”

Jasper raises his arm to give Wick the finger but Octavia smacks it back down to his side and nudges him forward.

Jasper takes a deep breath and stares at them with a blank face “I’m an emotionally compromised teenage girl*,” he begins monotonously “there was no logical reason for me to dance in your hallway like it was an episode of Glee. I sincerely apologize if my excitement made you uncomfortable or drew unnecessary attention to your relationship. Since you are two real people and not characters in Twilight, I have no right to publicly _ship_ you. I promise that I have no intention of making t-shirts and/or live-tweeting your interactions because honestly no one gives that much of a fuck.” He sighs loudly and turns to face the group behind him “Was that to your liking?”

“So that’s what you guys have been doing for the last hour huh?” Bellamy asks with a smirk.

“You sure that’s a conversation you want to get into?” Wick asks “Because we can talk about what you two….”

“Or we could just play poker.” Clarke says “Because it’s been a week and I’m really ready for things to go back to normal.”

“Well in that case,” Jasper says with a crack of his knuckles “I think I deserve the role of honorary dealer for the night.”

“Why you?” Monty scowls.

“Because obviously I orchestrated this whole….”

“You did not!” Raven said “you kept tweeting haikus about the death of poker night. Octavia is the one who…”

“Octavia can’t even play!”

“Oh I could learn.”

“I think it should be me,” Miller says in his serious _“license and registration please”_ voice. “I finally caught the kids who kept spray painting “AssWizard” on the side of the arcade.”

Monty laughs “Really, I was pretty sure you were making that up.”

“Nope, there were three of them. Apparently “Asswizard” is their techno band.”

“You shouldn’t be rewarded for taking three months to arrest teenage vandals who couldn’t come up with anything better than “AssWizard” Miller.” Bellamy says “It should be me,”

“For what?”

“I got the girl.” He winks and smiles in that big way that makes everyone else smile. Clarke just snorts.

“Could you crack a window Reyes, I’m allergic to cheese and it’s practically radiating off of him.” Wick grins.

Eventually, without even noticing really, they all settle into their seats. Wick and Lincoln have pulled two stools from the kitchen and fit them in between the chairs. Octavia has perched herself on the windowsill (in the prime position to see Jasper’s cards…which Clarke is pretty sure isn’t an accident). The pizza is sitting forgotten on the kitchen counters, their beer is probably getting warm, and the apartment still smells like fire-roasted peach pie, but the tension is finally gone. Everyone seems relaxed (even Raven who has Wick’s arm across the back of her chair and Lincoln who is sitting right next to Bellamy). 

“Here Clarke,” Monty hands her the deck “Your deal, your game.”

“Me?”

“Of course you.”

“Even though I didn’t plan a surprise party or arrest the Asswizards or get the girl?”

“Well you got Bellamy,” Octavia smiles. “he even ruined his good leather jacket attempting to give you a grand romantic gesture.”

“Yeah, Bellamy what was that like?” Raven smirks “Did you have a boom box or a sign?”

“Jasper, new rule: no discussing romantic gestures during poker.” Bellamy says.

“You can’t just add new rules.” Jasper says, “I’d have to get them re-laminated, and I don’t like going down to the Staples, the girl that works there has a face tattoo. She’s terrifying. There’s no point anyway….you’d all break the new rules as much as you do the old ones.”

Clarke shuffles the cards, amazed that hours ago she’s been playing solitaire alone on an airplane wondering how the hell she was going to fix things. It turns out….things like this usually have a way of working themselves out. Yeah, they break the fuck out of Jasper’s rules….and they’ve all ruined their fair share of poker nights, but they still always end up back here sitting around this table like there’s nowhere in the world they’d rather be. She’s lucky. She could lose every hand of poker they ever play and she’d still be lucky…just for having a seat at that old, sticky table.

“Alright kids, $20 in, and don’t even try to use that Subway coupon Wick, no one wanted it a month ago and we definitely don’t want it now that it’s expired. The game is 5 card draw.”

Bellamy’s hand finds hers after she finishes dealing. Jasper smiles at them, and Clarke smiles back (partially because Octavia is mouthing his cards to Lincoln across the table).

Yeah. She’s really really lucky. 

*** - yes, I did steal this line from the Allstate commercial.....but I'm not sorry! I also just want to thank everyone that read and reviewed this story. It has been so fun to write! This is the last chapter unfortunately ....unless the inspiration strikes one day.... but I am working on another AU with this same, goofy kind of vibe to it. I know the end of the season is going to be hard, so I'm hoping it can ease some of the pain. If you're interested...it's called Touch and Go, and I should have the second half out pretty soon. Thank you again for reading!**


	8. Epilogue Pt 1: High Chicago, Fireball Whiskey

_High Chicago, Fireball Whiskey_

**Almost 2 years later….**

The elevator was filled with loud groans as the theme to X-files echoed off of its small walls. 

“Jasper I swear to God if you don’t put that fucking phone on vibrate…”

Jasper held up a hand to silence Wick as he dug through his many pockets, “Just hold on…hold on…it’s here..”

“Keep it in the same pocket!” Bellamy snaps.

“Look buddy, some of us actually dressed up tonight – this vest has more pockets than I expected and the pants are so tight I can’t….”

“Because it’s a kid’s costume man, it’s for middle school boys.”

“I have told you a million times that The Lego Movie transcends typical age restrictions. Emmet is me Bellamy!”

“And if you think I’m not picking up on the insult every time you subtly mention that I’m “not wearing a costume” you’re sadly mistaken.”

Jasper looks up with a shocked face, “Look me in the eye and tell me that you had to go out and purchase that “costume”.” 

Bellamy looks down his nose as his friend, through the lens-less glasses with tape on the bridge. Yeah they were glasses he wore in grad school, a professor has given him the pocket protector when he was lecturing in Rome, he wore the shirt all the time, and the loafers….well he’s not exactly sure where they came from. “I am not…. _this_ kind of nerd.” He says for what feels like the millionth time that night. 

“This is the slowest elevator in existence.” Wick slams his hand against the wall.

“Calm down Iron Man.” Monty says as he plays with his plastic lightsaber- subtly glaring at Wick’s T-shirt.

“Calm down? This is the worst bachelor’s party ever.”

Bellamy tries to glare at him, but Wick just rolls his eyes “Don’t look at me like that. It’s 10:30 on Halloween, the perfect night for a crazy bachelor party, and we’re sober in an old elevator with a Jedi, the guy from The Lego Movie, and whatever the hell Murphy is supposed to be.”

“Zombie.” Murphy says.

“And all because Miller couldn’t put the badge away for one night.”

“It’s his job.”

“He’s the best man!” Wick says loudly “his job is to be the best man, not arrest the stripper!”

“She lit a car on fire Kyle.” Bellamy says “What kind of cop would he be if he didn’t arrest an arsonist?”

“First of all, he won’t know for sure that she’s the arsonist until he gets her prints- she was wearing a lot of make-up.”

“Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.” Jasper chimes in. “Maya just sent me a picture of a cupcake decorated like a pumpkin. I’m assuming the girls decided to skip the bar.”

“That’s great,” Wick says “at least this night will suck for all of us.”

“It’s not going to suck!” Jasper argues “this is a great idea- this is the perfect idea. It should have been the plan from the beginning. I should have been best man.”

Bellamy starts to launch into his rant about Jasper’s being 0-4 with positions of responsibility within their group, but he’s cut off by the sound of the X-files theme song again.

“PUT IT. ON. SILENT!”

When the elevator dings open Bellamy storms into the hallway. “We need to make the best of this,” he says “I realize that it may not be living up to everyone’s expectations, but this isn’t _The Hangover_ let’s just have a drink and play some poker.”

“Like we always do.” Wick mumbles.

“The next person who complains is sitting at the kid’s table tomorrow night.” Bellamy threatens as he fishes his keys from his pocket.

Monty laughs, “Yeah, like Clarke’s team of Wedding Dictators would ever let you make a decision like that.”

“For your information,” Bellamy says, “I got to choose the soup they’re serving at the rehearsal dinner.”

“What did you chose?” Murphy asks without looking up from the phone he’s been fiddling with since they left the elevator.

“Uh,” he puts the keys in the door, “some vegetable bisque….I think.”

“Wow,” Wick says, “impressive.”

“Look Clarke and I don’t give a shit about any of it- it’s been blown out of proportion.”

“Yeah, we’re aware.”

“They told me I had to wax my eyebrows.”

“My tux is the most confusing thing I’ve ever seen.”

When Bellamy opens the door and flips on the light- they all stop their bickering and stare into the apartment. The floors are shiny, the walls are bare, every piece of furniture is gone.

“Holy shit.” Monty says as they all slowly walk through the door.

Their footsteps echo- it’s a bummer in a very profound way. Clarke’s apartment was always filled with the sounds of Netflix, and oven timers, shuffling cards, 80’s music, and that super annoying fan that makes an unnecessary roaring noise whenever anyone turns on the bathroom light. Even on nights they didn’t have poker games- when they’d show up out of nowhere because Clarke tweeted that she had the night off, or that weekend she gave Monty an “emergency key” and he and Jasper binge watched Orange is the New Black on her big screen. Through the years Clarke’s place had become their place- the last year of her residency they probably spent more time there than she did. And yeah poker games would continue, Clarke had already volunteered her and Bellamy’s new town house- which actually had a finished basement they were converting into a game room- but it was still the end of an era. 

“Wow,” Jasper exclaims, “look how clean it is!”

“This is kind of depressing Jasper.” Monty says, “maybe we should…”

Jasper cuts him off, “We’re playing one last game of poker in this apartment. It’s going to be beautiful and poetic. Now” he waves his hand like a king, “empty the bag.”

As Bellamy closes the door, Monty pulls the R2D2 shaped backpack from his shoulders and empties the contents onto the floor: A glow in the dark deck of cards, their DC Comic supervillain themed poker chips, beef jerky, BBQ Fritos, three boxes of marshmallow peeps shaped like little ghosts, and what must be a dozen miniatures of Fireball whiskey. 

It takes a minute for it to really sink in- that a 28 year old man just pulled a glow in the dark deck of cards, supervillain poker chips, beef jerky, Fritos, marshmallow peep ghosts, and tiny bottles of cheap whiskey from a Star Wars back-pack that Bellamy knows for a fact Octavia found in the children’s back-to- school section at Target.

Wick bursts into laughter as soon as he sees it, not his cynical- annoyed sort of laughter, but the genuine kind, the kind that reminds Bellamy how well the guy fits into their little circle of friends. Murphy on the other hand…”

“Yeah listen Blake, I’m gonna take off,”

“We need five.” Jasper reminds him harshly.

Murphy just shrugs, “The cop is coming back right? There’s this girl that works at the bar on Murray St…”

“Say no more,” Bellamy smiles and extends his hand, “thanks for coming Murph-“

“Of course,” Murphy says, “I’ll see you on the big day.” He takes one last look at the pile of peeps on the ground and snorts, “have a nice evening gentleman.”

Jasper groans when the front door’s slam echoes through the empty room. “How long is Miller going to be?”

“He was still at the station when we got here.” Bellamy says, checking his phone.

Jasper sighs and stands up, Monty opens the poker chips and Wick starts shot-gunning peeps. “Oh,” Monty says as he remembers one last thing in the side pocket of the bag. He grins as he pulls out a box of Nerds – “Here Bellamy,” he tosses them to him “we brought these just for you.”

Bellamy tries not to smile, “Fuck you.”

Jasper doesn’t respond. He’s walking around the apartment like he’s in some kind of expensive art museum. “One of us should have rented this place,” he says, “so a stranger can’t move in.”

“Everything has to end sometime.” Bellamy says through a mouthful of Nerds.

“But these are our memories.”

“We have pictures,” Monty reminds him, “and scars.”

Jasper laughs and points to the corner closest to the front door- “Like right there, when Clarke and I tried to carry Bellamy to the couch after he passed out at the Superbowl party and dropped him on his head.”

“That wasn’t funny,” Bellamy says- glaring at Wick who is grinning at him- “I had to get three stitches- and don’t-“ he snatches a box away from Wick, “don’t eat all the peeps.”

“And then remember the ugly ass vase she had here?” Jasper continues- walking over to where Clarke used to have an end table, “Monty puked in it on Christmas Eve and Clarke didn’t even notice it until New Years.”

“It was that Sambuca _he_ brought back from Italy-“ Monty points a finger at Bellamy who snorts at the memory. “Never again.”

They watch Jasper wander to the kitchen- “Last year when Monty and I got high and made 200 meatballs.”

“That was asinine.” Bellamy says, with a little bit of frustration. “there are stains on the walls in there that bleach couldn’t even remove.”

“And here,” Jasper says as he comes full circle and stands next to them, “here is where Wick first showed us his tramp stamp.”

Wick starts to cough violently, “It is not a- stop calling it a fucking tramp stamp.” He finally manages to choke out.

“It’s a stupid tribal design- I was in college, I was banging a tattoo artist, and I was drinking a lot- you know what? No. No, I’m not going over the story with you again. Stop telling people I have a tramp stamp.”

“What did Raven say the first time she saw it?” Bellamy asks through a grin.

Wick grabs one of the miniatures and struggles to open it, “She- laughed a little.”

“She definitely tweeted about it.” Jasper says, “ something like Wick can’t rock lowriders _#trampstampproblems_.”

“I hate you guys,” Wick says- but his smile has returned full-force. “I really do.”

Jasper turns and faces the hallway that leads to the bathroom- “That bathroom-“ he points “ Is where you threatened to take an axe to me and Miller’s heads if we didn’t stop being so obvious about knowing about the proposal.”

“A proposal which you still managed to screw up.” Bellamy mumbles.

“I did not! Octavia did.”

“Because you told her!”

“Give me a break, I had just learned how to use Snap Chat, it was a Friday, I was excited.”

Bellamy smiles, “It’s alright. It worked out.”

“I would have genuinely sabotaged it had I known that your union would mean losing the apartment.”

“Jasper, we’ve told you a million times, the new house is bigger.”

“I know, I know- bigger tv, a beer meister, maybe a pac man game.” He plops down onto the ground and adjusts his hard hat, “this still sucks.”

Monty shoots him a sympathetic look, “Let’s deal,” he says, “Miller will be here soon. Your game, your deal.”

For the next ten minutes they talk a lot about absolutely nothing, which is the way that it should be. They spend so much time being responsible adults in their everyday life, those few hours they get to spend together bullshitting and surrounded by sticky cards and junk food- it’s therapeutic. Wick is in the middle of a rant about the movie _Halloween_ (“Seriously you expect me to believe that it’s Halloween in Illinois? The leaves are green! Put some fucking effort into it!”) when the door to the apartment opens up.

They expect to see Miller. They expect him to raise his eyebrows and look at them like they’re crazy for sitting on the floor like a bunch of middle school boys on a camp out. They expect him to laugh a little bit- what they don’t expect is for him to be giving a woman dressed as a giant yellow M&M a piggy-back ride. 

“Look who I found.” Miller says with a smile.

Jasper drops everything in his hands and shoots to his feet. “What are you doing here?” he asks, but he’s smiling so wide its almost comical.

“Hey Maya!” they all chorus as she jumps down from Miller’s back and reaches her hand out for Jasper's. “It was Octavia’s idea.” She says.

Bellamy turns to face her, “What was?”

Before Maya can open her mouth the doorway is filled with three shadows.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Bellamy rolls his eyes as his sister yells in outrage. “Jasper, you stole my idea!”

“What- no I didn’t!”

“I told you last week that this would be my plan B if the party bombed out.”

“So,” Jasper says, “ how do you know I wasn’t thinking the exact same thing! And anyway we got here first.”

“Great point,” Clarke says as she pushes her way into the apartment. She’s dressed as Cleopatra- a white and gold dress with a black wig and ridiculous make up. Bellamy tries to list all the historical inaccuracies in his head instead of focusing on the giant slit up the side of the dress. “How did you get in here?”

She tries to look angry, but she gets one look at their little circle- and Monty’s lightsaber, and Bellamy’s taped glasses, and the leftover sugar from the ghost peeps around Wick’s mouth, and her eyes light up with laughter.

“I used my key.” Bellamy says as he stands up and walks towards her.

“You were supposed to turn it in.”

“So were you.” He raises his eyebrows and looks down at her- for a moment he seriously contemplates finding out what she’s wearing under that costume- but Raven clears her throat dramatically.

“Hello,” she says “you two aren’t supposed to see each other- isn’t that like bad juju or something?”

Raven has her arms crossed in front of her. She’s wearing a black T-shirt, jeans, and cat ears that she probably bought at a dollar store. It’s just about the laziest Halloween costume Bellamy has ever seen- you know….besides Wick’s super casual take on Iron Man. They’re obviously meant for each other. 

“Hey Reyes,” he says from his spot on the floor, “ _Meow_.”

“Shut it or I’ll shut it for you.” Raven quips. 

“Raven is right actually.” Octavia says, she’s dressed as Thor- like actual Thor -not the commercialized stripper version- so she points her plastic Mjolnir at them, “It’s bad luck for you two see each other. That’s the whole point of Bellamy’s hotel room.”

Bellamy nods, but he’s laughing inside because he has every intention of sneaking out of that hotel room once everyone leaves him for the night, breaking into the town house, and sleeping in his own bed with the woman he loves. The hotel room had been a gift- an attempt to make the whole week more special or something- Bellamy appreciated his friend’s effort, and maybe staying there the night before the wedding made sense, but three days before? It’s just like he said- the entire wedding has been blown out of proportion. 

Plus it’s Halloween- and Clarke is….dressed like that. Fuck the hotel room. 

Jasper must catch the way Bellamy is looking at his fiancé because he lets out an obnoxious snort, “You know,” he nods at Clarke, “you dressing like that only makes him look nerdier.”

Bellamy glares- and plans to point out Jasper’s blatant hypocrisy, but before he can open his mouth Octavia holds her hammer up again. “What are you even doing here?” she demands. “What happen to your bro-rager?” 

“Miller arrested the Stripper.” Wick says casually.

Jasper laughs awkwardly and steps in front of him- still holding Maya’s hand-“ By stripper he means – you know….lady waitress, scantily clad lady waitress.”

“She was an arsonist.” Miller says when the girls look over at him with raised eyebrows, “she lit her ex boyfriend’s smart car on fire. I recognized her from surveillance footage.”

Raven snorts, trying to discreetly walk over to sit next to Wick. Of course there is nothing discreet about Wick so as soon as she’s within arm’s reach- he pulls her to his side and hands her the last ghost peep, “I’ll say this Nathan- you’re one hell of a cop.” She mumbles.

“Terrible best man though.” Wick adds.

“It makes for a good story.” Bellamy says, “that’s what this is all about right?”

“What about you guys?” Monty asks, swatting Raven’s hand away when she tries to grab his lightsaber. 

There’s an awkward silence. “Uh-Lexa was at the restaurant.” Clarke finally says.

The air pretty much leaves the room- everyone stares down at their feet, except for Wick who just raises his eyebrows. Bellamy goes rigid, “Lexa from DC?” he asks.

Clarke tries to look casual, “Yup.”

“What is Lexa from DC doing here?”

“In town for an art show or something.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Obviously something happened- or you wouldn’t be here.”

“Bellamy, don’t do this alright. She showed up, killed the mood with her …intensity…and we just wanted to get out of there and do something fun.”

He nods, “Did you tell her?” he asks, “I bet she had a lot to say about us.”

“I don’t really care what she has to say about us.”

“What am I missing?” Wick whispers theatrically, “who is Lexa?”

“Don’t babe,” Raven says, “just don’t.”

“Lexa is a crazy person that used to tell Clarke she was in love with her.” Bellamy says.

Clarke looks a little annoyed, but everyone else nods as if that’s a pretty accurate description.

“Lexa is my ex.” Clarke says, “She’s a person from my past that I haven’t thought about in a long time.”

“And she magically appears two days before our wedding.” Bellamy says.

Clarke glares at him, “Can I speak to you in private for a moment?”

She doesn’t wait for his answer- instead she shoves him towards the empty bathroom. Closing the door just as Jasper starts to complain, _“Lexa always hated poker night, of course she’d fucking ruin this.”_

“I don’t want to fight with you Bellamy,” she says, “especially not over Lexa.”

“I know you,” he says, “I know marriage is terrifying for you and you can’t tell me that seeing her didn’t make you feel like the universe was sending some kind of sign or…”

She raises her hands and swats his words away, “Why would I think that?”

“Because you loved Lexa.”

“And Lexa wasn’t capable of loving anyone but herself. Yeah, she and I worked for a while but we’re not- we couldn’t have been forever. You know that that relationship was a disaster- why are you freaking out about this?”

“Because I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop.” He says, “It’s all just….stuff like this doesn’t happen to me.”

“Stuff like what? Happiness? That’s bullshit Bellamy.”

He doesn’t say anything.

“Just say that you’re scared.” Clarke says, “We’re getting married and it’s terrifying. I’m admitting it. God, Lexa and I…..it was like seeing an old friend. She was happy for me- yeah she said…the usual about you…but she could tell I was happy. Seeing her, telling her about us, it made me want to see you and I couldn’t do that, so I wanted to come here. That’s all it was. Marriage does terrify me, but you don’t- you make it less scary and I… don’t think I’d be able to do it with anyone but you.”

He sighs and lays his forehead against hers, pushing her back until she’s forced to lift herself up on the counter next to the sink.

“I’m sorry,” he says with a small smile. “I’m crazy.”

“It’s cool, I dig it.” She jokes. His hand finds the slit in her dress.”It’s Halloween Bellamy, time to face your fears.”

He pulls back and looks her in the eye, “I know how much faith you’re putting in me. I’m going to let you down. I don’t know when or how but I- I have a bad habit of screwing things with the people I love. Octavia, my mom, you….”

“You love me?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“You want to spend the rest of your life with me?”

“Yes.”

“You won’t ever intentionally hurt me?”

“Never.”

“You want me to be happy?”

“More than anything.”

“Well if all that’s true- there’s no way you’ll ever let me down. Piss me off? Sure, but usually that can be mended by you admitting that you’re an idiot and making out with me.”

“I’m an idiot.”

“I know,” she pulls him forward and kisses him, “I love you.”

“I love you.”

They kiss until he tastes her lipstick-of which she is wearing an extreme amount of- he pulls away to wipe frantically at his mouth.

“That sounded an awful lot like forever,” she says as she helps him wipe lipstick from the corner of his mouth, “Shit, are we married?” 

He laughs, “Nah, neither of us are important enough to make vows official.”

_“I can get ordained online in like ten minutes!”_ they hear a muffled yell.

Bellamy whips around, “Goddamn it Jasper, get away from the door!” he kicks it with the back of his foot and hears Jasper yelp in surprise. “He’s never going to change. He’s going to be seventy years old pressing his hearing aide against the door every time we try to have a private conversation.”

When they finally make it back out to the living room- everyone is sitting around like they hadn’t even noticed they were gone. Jasper had dealt them in- two stacks of cards lying face down next to each other. 

Miller and Monty are creating horrible fire- themed stripper names, (Blaze Nymph-pyro), Octavia is French-braiding Maya’s hair, because it keeps getting in her face and her arms are impeded by the M&M costume, and Raven and Wick are tag teaming Jasper.

“You could have been Star Lord.” Wick says.

“The guy from Jurassic World.” Raven adds.

“Burt fucking Macklin!” (Wick had taken a liking to Parks and Rec when Raven had showed him how to work Netflix. He was still pretty bummed about the series ending.)

“But no- The Lego movie.”

Jasper leans forward, and grabs the brim of his hard hat for emphasis, “I. Regret. Nothing.”

“Somewhere Chris Pratt is crying.” Raven says with a shake of her head.

“Oh please, that guy is awesome- he’d think this was hilarious.”

Wick shrugs and nods, “You may be right.” He holds up his little bottle of Fireball, “to Macklin.” He takes a big swig and Jasper laughs.

They play for two hours. Lincoln facetimes Octavia when he gets back to his hotel room, she passes the phone around and they all make small talk. He and Bellamy actually have a pretty long conversation about the MLB playoffs- it’s silly but it makes Octavia smile. 

Jasper spends the whole night making Maya laugh- which is the great thing about their relationship. Someone wouldn’t even know Maya was sick just by looking at her. They never really talk about the Leukemia- but it usually sits in the corner of the room like an obnoxious elephant- tonight though, tonight Maya listens to Jasper’s horrible Joker impersonation and laughs until she’s lying flat on her back staring up at the ceiling. 

Monty and Miller have both been dealing with promotions at work- it’s made them horribly stressed. Monty had to swear off pot. Miller broke it off with the girl he’d been dating for a few months. Tonight is the first night that either of them actually look like they’re having fun, Miller in his ridiculously corny fire fighter costume and Monty with his lightsaber. 

Raven and Wick seem to be in a good place- it’s hard to tell with them. They’re definitely dating, but they both go back and forth about whether it’s serious. Clarke watches Raven play with Wick’s hands- like she doesn’t even notice- and smiles. Finn had passed away over the summer- a car accident in Denver. They both took it hard- Raven had been an absolute mess. She and Finn had always stayed in contact as sort- of friends, his death was out of nowhere. Wick had been there for her- without question. Raven had pushed him away at first, but goddamn the man was persistent. When they got home from the funeral Raven had dumped him- two weeks later they were back together. He broke it off after an argument on Memorial Day weekend- Raven fixed it a few days later. They were back and forth, but they had definitely been more on than off recently.

Bellamy held onto to his relaxed smile the whole night- Clarke knew there was still some anxiety beneath the surface and he probably saw the same thing when he looked at her, but they’d always been able to get through things together, marriage wouldn’t be any different. 

That night they drink all but two miniatures. 

Clarke and Bellamy go home together- no one says a word.

They wake up the next morning and its November first. The wedding is in two days, a new couple is moving into Clarke’s apartment, they all troop to work, text a little bit less than they always did. It’s the end of an era- but there’s a whole lot of other shit coming up. 

Growing old can be a great adventure if you’re lucky enough to be doing it with the right people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray for a Halloween themed epilogue- I hope do part 2 around Christmas time. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!


End file.
